Washington’s 3-star running back target Julian McMahan is throwback-type of running back.

The running back from Monte Vista, California is a throwback in every sense.

He’s a bruising 6-3 and 228.6-pound running back who digs old movies.

”I like Karate Kid—the original with Ralph Macchio.  I’ve seen it more times than I can count,” the Monte Vista High School junior said, although his favorite genre is old school Sci-Fi.

And he likes running over and around would-be tacklers—old school-style—which probably helped him land his first offer from former Ohio State running back, Scottie Graham.

Last season McMahan carried the ball 187 times for 1,113 yards and scored 16 times.  He caught 25 passes for 293 yards and 3 TDs.

But Graham spotted him long before his breakout Junior season, giving him his first offer when Graham was at the University of Arizona.

”He was the first to believe in me,” McMahan said.  “It means a lot to me that I was re-offered by Coach Paopao and Coach Graham when they got up to Washington.”

And they got him to join them in Seattle for an official visit the weekend of June 21-23.

In fact, Graham wasn’t the only one to believe in the old-school movie buff as he was re-offered by Washington January 9, who offered him under Kalen DeBoer in June of last year.

Graham a captain for the Buckeyes his senior year in 1991, was born in 1969, during Ohio State’s famed “3 yards and a cloud of dust” football era, must have recognized McMahan’s body-type.

Under Hall of Fame coach Woody Hayes, the Buckeyes used big, punishing backs to wear down defenses.

The Buckeyes were a Rose Bowl-upset to Stanford away from winning back-to-back-to-back National Championships from 1968-1970.

Those days OSU rode the shoulders of 6-0, 223 and of Jim Otis of 6-2, 225 RB John Brockington.

But McMahan is even a bigger back than Husky Legend Corey Dillon although not quite the 6-4, 205 running back/tight end Robin Earl under Don James in the late 70s.

For his part in Columbus, Graham was 5-9, 222-pound Buckeye back who became a 7th-round draft pick, taken by the Pittsburg Steelers in 1992.  At Ohio State Graham’s path crossed with Heisman Trophy-winning running back, Eddie George.

A throwback, 6-3, 230-pound, 3 yards and a cloud of dust, Eddie George, and as a high school junior, McMahan is 1.4 pounds lighter than the Buckeye Hall of Famer.

An All-State running back last season, McMahan has offers from Washington, Washington State, Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA, California, and Arizona.

He’s visited UCLA 4 times and will be visiting the Oregon schools this weekend.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing Washington in person,” McMahan said.  “I have a great relationship with the Coach Paopao and Coach Graham.”

He will take time over the early part of summer before deciding on which school to commit to.

”The goal is to commit sometime in August,” he said.