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Gophers hosting standout JUCO safety on official visit, per report

Micheal "MJ" Graham is a safety at Hutchinson Community College who has the Gophers and another Big Ten school interested.
Will Ragatz|
Gophers defensive coordinator and safeties coach Danny Collins with Kerry Brown.
Gophers defensive coordinator and safeties coach Danny Collins with Kerry Brown. | Picture via: University of Minnesota

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Minnesota Golden Gophers

The Gophers are set to host Hutchinson Community College (KS) safety Micheal "MJ" Graham on an official visit, according to 247 Sports' Allen Trieu. It sounds like the visit will take place sometime during Minnesota's bye next week.

In addition to the Gophers, Michigan State is also pursuing Graham and will host him on an official visit next week. The Spartans, who are in Minneapolis this weekend, recently became Graham's first Big Ten offer.

Graham was a three-star high school recruit out of Westmoore in Oklahoma City in the class of 2024. He had offers from Houston and a couple other schools, but he wound up going the JUCO route and ended up at Hutchinson. He had two interceptions as a freshman and is having a huge season in 2025, with four interceptions and 4.5 tackles for loss in seven games. He's listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds.

247 Sports' composite ranking has Graham as the 20th-ranked JUCO recruit in the country. Along with the Michigan State offer and Minnesota interest, he has offers from UCF and a bunch of smaller D1 programs: Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, FIU, Liberty, Texas State, and Old Dominion.

Graham is someone worth keeping an eye for the Gophers and defensive coordinator/safeties coach Danny Collins. Minnesota has a strong safety room led by Koi Perich, Kerry Brown, and Aidan Gousby — all of whom have additional eligibility beyond this season — but they've had some injuries at that position this year, and teams are always looking to build depth via recruiting at every level.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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