In June, Penn State football’s Max Granville committed to the Nittany Lions as part of the 2025 recruiting class. Less than two months before the Nittany Lions kick-off against West Virginia, he reclassified to the 2024 class, and on Wednesday, Granville suited up in the blue and white for the first time.

The reclassification put the four-star edge rusher as the No. 9 ranked player in the Nittany Lion’s class of 2024, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Considering the very quick admission and signing process, James Franklin had nothing but praise for the 6’2.5″, 220-pound Sugar Land, Texas, native during the team’s media day on Saturday.

“He’s already flashed in the first two days,” Franklin said. “Athletic, quick, a lot of things you saw on the high school tape, but you don’t know if those things are going to show up when they get here, but that’s already happened.”

Defensive line coach Deion Barnes noted Granville’s explosiveness and speed during his first two practices with the program, but defensive coordinator Tom Allen was more impressed with Granville’s character.

“We were very excited about his athleticism on film. He flashes,” Allen said. “Then you start to get to know the person and the family and you see the fit for our program. That guy is going to come here and care about things that we care about and just do the little things the right way.”

Granville’s reclassification came as a surprise to Franklin and the rest of the coaching staff. With the quick turnaround from committing to 2025’s class and then enrolling a month later, Granville was in a unique position.

Franklin said Granville was taking summer classes so he could join the program as an early enrollee after the fall semester, but when he finished the classes Granville was able to graduate high school and enroll at Penn State immediately.

“They brought the option up to us and I think that also triggered to us that they are very serious about Penn State because they are having these types of conversations with us,” Franklin said. “But it was pretty late in the process, so then it was a ton of work that had to happen for him in terms of the application process and all that; for us, in terms of getting all that documentation and then also getting him here.”

Although Granville’s reclassification came as a surprise, the addition came at an advantageous time with the dismissal of defensive end Jameial Lyons.

Other than Abdul Carter and Dani Dennis-Sutton, there’s a lot of unproven talent beneath Penn State’s presumed starters on the depth chart. Franklin mentioned Amin Vanover and Smith Vilbert as two guys who don’t get enough recognition, but with Carter and Dennis-Sutton being draft eligible and Vanover and Vilbert being seniors, Franklin listed young players he wants to step up in the future, with Granville as one of them.

“There are a bunch of guys, whether it’s [Joseph] Mupoyi, whether it’s [Mylachi] Williams, whether it’s [Jordan] Mayer, whether it is Granville,” Franklin said. “There’s other guys kind of in the mix there.”