What’s better than taking one former Ohio State wide receiver from the transfer portal? Taking two. Mylan Graham will play for Notre Dame in 2026, it was announced Tuesday. Fellow former Buckeyes wideout Quincy Porter committed to ND on Tuesday.

Graham visited Notre Dame on Thursday Jan. 8, four days after On3’s Hayes Fawcett reported that Graham would be entering the portal. Auburn, Ole Miss and Louisville were among the other schools with mutual interest, according to On3’s Steve Wiltfong.

Ohio State made a recent push to get him back on its roster, but the Buckeyes’ efforts were unsuccessful. Graham — the No. 105 overall player and No. 24 wide receiver per the On3 Industry Transfer Portal Ranking — will play for the Irish.

It was a long time coming for Graham and the Irish to unite.

He visited Notre Dame three times as the No. 39 recruit and No. 9 wide receiver in the 2024 class, per the Rivals Industry Ranking, out of New Haven (Ind.) High school and made each trip with his close friend Tae Johnson, a star Irish safety from nearby Fort Wayne, Ind., who certainly played a role in Graham choosing ND.

One of the interesting things about the transfer portal is it has the ability to bring teams into contact with players that weren’t on the radar in high school recruitments. For example, of the five portal players who visited Notre Dame last Tuesday, the Irish only offered one of them a scholarship as a high school recruit. Graham was the anomaly in that regard.

The Irish did indeed offer Graham out of New Haven, which is roughly two hours away from South Bend. But so too did a whole lot of other prominent programs, a list that obviously included Ohio State — a wide receiver production factory if there ever was such a thing. But even as a four-star, top-10 caliber wideout, things don’t always work out in situations that seem like they can’t fail on the surface.

Graham entered the portal after two seasons in Columbus, and Notre Dame will have the Hoosier State native for at least the next couple of years.

Graham’s stay at Ohio State was more about hype than in-game production. For instance, he had more receiving yards in the 2025 spring game than he did in his entire two-year OSU career; 4 catches for 103 yards in the exhibition and 6 catches for 93 yards in 13 regular season appearances.

For Notre Dame, though, this is more about the opportunity to bolster what’s already on the Irish roster in terms of promising young wide receiver talent. But at some point, the Irish coaching staff must figure out which of those young players are the ones we could see on Saturdays and pour into them with every resource available.

The idea in going after Graham is he’s got to be someone that fits into that category.

Ohio State had their top three wide receivers in 2025, and that was that. Players like Graham were forced to play the waiting game behind Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Brandon Innis. They all had at least 36 catches, with Smith leading the way with 87 and Tate having 51. Who was the Buckeyes’ fourth-leading wide receiver (not including tight ends and running backs) in terms of receptions? Graham with his half a dozen.

According to MaxPreps, Graham caught 112 passes for 2,062 yards and 21 touchdowns in 24 games in his New Haven career. It’s no surprise he was highly sought after a couple years ago. Fresh starts are always nice. Sometimes, they’re even nicer when getting a little closer to home.

It’s probably not accurate to go as far as calling Graham potentially ending up at Notre Dame a true homecoming, but whatever it’s dubbed, it certainly is welcomed. And it could bring out more of who he was in New Haven.