"When Brandon Graham becomes the latest in a long line of first-round NFL Draft picks from the University of Michigan, he'll think of Jake Long.

Not just because Long, Graham's former Wolverines teammates, went No. 1 to the Miami Dolphins in 2008, but because it was Long, the mammoth left tackle, who taught a wide-eyed freshman from Detroit what it would take to survive in college football.

"My freshman year was the worst because I had to go against him all the time [in practice] and he used to go 100 percent all the time," says Graham, a defensive end/outside linebacker. "He didn't do anything but make me better. He put me on the ground a few times. Well, a whole bunch of times."

Graham, the reigning Big Ten MVP, can laugh about those beatings now as he heads to this week's NFL Scouting Combine off an MVP performance in the Senior Bowl."