“One of one,” says “Sack Sensei”
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Javon Gopie was surprised by Mason Graham’s opening message when the two met for the first time.
Gopie, better known on social media and in football circles as Sack Sensei, is a former Division I football player turned pass rush specialist from South Florida. He runs a system called Sack Club, which offers a variety of programs for aspiring defensive linemen — pre-draft training, offseason training, pass rush summits — and Graham was recently in town to participate in the college’s offseason training program.
Graham had been in contact with Gopie before his departure. After all, the specialist has worked with several Michigan football linemen over the past year, from Jaylen Harrell and Braiden McGregor before the NFL Draft in April to his current teammate Derrick Moore.
But in this first conversation with Graham, what mattered was not so much what the junior said to Gopie, but how he said it.
“The exciting thing was when we spoke. I asked him what he wanted to continue working on and he said: ‘I want mustbecome a better pass rusher,'” Gopie told the Free Press. “If you look at his film, he made a lot of big plays (last season). On that (second) down, in overtime in the Rose Bowl, he made a huge tackle that resulted in a loss of yardage.
“He has the chance to be really good. So special.”
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Gopie knows exactly what “special” means: He has worked with some of the NFL’s best pass rushers, including Miami’s Bradley Chubb, who had 39½ sacks in his seven-year NFL career, and Detroit’s James Houston, who had eight sacks in just seven games as a rookie out of Jackson State.
More recently, he prepared a handful of first- and second-round picks for April’s NFL Draft, including Alabama’s Dallas Turner (No. 17, Minnesota), Pitt’s Calijah Kancey (No. 19, Tampa Bay) and Florida State’s (formerly Western Michigan) Braden Fiske (No. 39, Los Angeles Rams).
Despite those resolutions, Gopie, also known as “Sack Sensei,” told the Free Press he had never coached a player like he did the 6-foot-3, 300-pound junior defensive tackle from Michigan.
“It’s hard for me to compare him to anyone because I don’t think I’ve seen an athlete of his size and speed with those intangibles,” Gopie gushed. “I think he’s one of those guys that’s going to be one of a kind.”
“So slippery, so nervous”
When Graham first arrived in Ann Arbor after a standout career at Servite High School — capped by a 2021 season in which he was named high school football player of the year by the Los Angeles Times — then-head coach Jim Harbaugh called an unnamed freshman a “gift from the football gods.”
It wasn’t until later in the year that Harbaugh admitted he had been talking about Graham after the baby-faced bulldozer came on the scene. In his first year of college football, Graham played in each of UM’s 14 games and finished with 27 tackles, 2½ sacks, a pass defense and a quarterback hurry. Along the way, he was named a Freshman All-American by Pro Football Focus.
“He played a lot as a true freshman — and the production will come — but his movement, his block destruction, his pass rush have all improved,” then-defensive coach Mike Elston said in September of Graham’s sophomore year. “He’s a phenomenal, phenomenal player.”
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It triggered another huge jump from Graham.
Despite breaking a bone in his hand, causing him to miss two games and play two more with a stick on his hand, Graham still finished the 2023 season with 36 tackles (7½ for a loss), three sacks, three quarterback hurries, one pass breakup, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
He was selected to the All-Big Ten first team, and PFF’s Wins Above Average metric listed Graham as the nation’s fourth most valuable defensive tackle, as well as sixth most valuable in pass-rush win rate (15.9%). He was also one of two defensive tackles in the nation to post top-10 grades against the pass and run.
Nevertheless, Gopie sees room for improvement.
“I was super excited to get the chance to work with him. Man, I tell you, it was a pleasure, but I was very surprised at how athletic and fidgety he was,” Gopie said. “For him to be so good in the movie, he’s so inexperienced, and that’s what’s so exciting about it, because his potential is so high.
“As a pass rusher, he’s slick and super fidgety,” he said. “He’s got great functional movement and that’s so important for us on defense to be able to position, bend and change direction. He’s Tier 1 in terms of his movement and still has more room to grow in terms of figuring out what he does best.”
“It just keeps getting better”
That’s what Graham is after over the next two to five months: Finding a really dominant pass-rush move and then building a large enough repertoire to build on that and beat the interior linemen in a variety of ways.
Michigan, the defending national champion, is scheduled to open its 2024 season under the lights in Ann Arbor against Fresno State on Aug. 31, but before that, Gopie plans to watch at least three games of the Bulldogs’ offensive line from last season.
After the two watch separately, they sit down together and go through their notes to put together a game plan.
“It will help me get more insight into his football mentality,” Gopie said. “From what we’ve seen so far, he’s a smart, intelligent guy, but we want to analyse footage now and throughout the season that will help him improve his game tremendously.”
There are several new faces surrounding Graham this year after the Wolverines replaced all of last year’s defensive personnel. Lou Esposito is in charge of the defensive line after serving as Western Michigan’s defensive coordinator, and it didn’t take long for him to admire Graham.
“I haven’t watched everyone else, but if there are two D-tackles that are better than them, I’d like to see them play as a group,” he said in the spring. “Mason is a guy that you can see was a high school wrestler. He plays with great leverage, he understands weight shifting and he understands his hands.
“He just keeps getting better and better and better.”
That’s a scary thought for anyone going up against Graham, who was already being touted as a top-10 pick in the 2025 draft this offseason. With as much potential as anyone in the class, Gopie said he absolutely expects Graham to finish with a first-round pick, just one reason PFF recently named him the best DT in America.
As a junior, Graham may not be named a captain. As a defensive tackle, Graham may not lead the team in tackles or sacks. As a low-profile lineman, Graham may not make as much of an impact as big names like JJ McCarthy or Blake Corum, but his importance cannot be overstated – nor can his chances of becoming a household name at Michigan and elsewhere.
“He’s not wide,” Gopie said. “In addition to his athleticism, I want him to be a really effective pass rusher. I want him to win nine out of 12 reps, not two out of seven.”
“But he’s not far, I expect a first-round grade – I’ve already seen it – but I expect that to happen.”
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