If you ask Penn State football defensive end Max Granville about the injury that caused him to miss the entire 2025 season, he’ll tell you it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

“Compared to the suffering a lot of other people in the world go through,” Granville said when asked about his rehab process. “I mean, what’s an injury, you know?”

But not all injuries are created equal, nor are they in the same context. A lot has changed since Granville last wore the blue and white in a real game at the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame in January 2025.

Playing exclusively on special teams that game, Granville was there for the heartbreak of the season, coming one game and one play short in the College Football Playoff Semifinal. He also lived through all the hype and optimism for the 2025 season, which was supposed to be the season fans had waited decades for.

Instead, for both Granville and the team, things went downhill fast. After spring football concluded, he suffered a season-ending knee injury several months before he would’ve gotten the chance to compete for snaps in the two-deep edge rusher room.

From the sidelines, he watched as everything fell apart for James Franklin and the Nittany Lions — going from national title contenders to laughingstocks in a matter of weeks.

Granville had myriad options that offseason as a young player with three years of eligibility remaining and endless potential, but he elected to stick with it in State College to start the Matt Campbell era, where he looks to make an impact in 2026.

“Getting my feel for the game back, I felt like it was a pretty smooth transition,” Granville said Tuesday about his progression. “Sometimes when you don’t play for a while, you’re shooting hands. You’re looking into the backfield and missing; you can miss the hands, so that was a big part. Reading tackles, pass sets, run blocks, all those things.”

Coming out of high school, Granville had an offer sheet from an abundance of big-time programs, but he committed to Penn State and even reclassified to join the Class of 2024, which gave him valuable experience and reps backing up future No. 3 overall pick Abdul Carter as a freshman.

The excitement surrounding him was palpable — Granville was set to be the next great edge rusher and could fill the hole left by Carter, but the knee injury slowed him down.

Rehabbing such an injury can be lonely for some athletes, but Granville cited his support system as a big help.

“I still have my brothers to be with me every day; I got a lot of good friends on this campus, and you know, just having rehab every day builds character,” he said. “But there’s also a reward in the process: going at it every day in rehab, getting better over time. It just taught me patience.”

With less than two weeks until the season kicks off against Marshall, the progress of Granville and the rest of the defensive line has been a revelation this preseason. Coach Campbell had nothing but good things to say about the progress the pass rush had made over the last week, including Granville himself.

“Defensively, you feel like there was great growth last week, where winning on first down gives you the ability to get into pass-rushing situations,” Campbell said about a rainy week of practice in State College. “And I thought, man, that group had a really great week last week.

“I think when you talk about Max [Granville], when you talk about [Caleb Bacon], when you talk about Ike [Ezeogu], when you talk about Yvon [Kemajou], when you talk about [Alex] McPherson, like these are guys that keep showing up in practice,” he added.

Granville seems to have had a great week of practice, with Campbell lauding the progress he’s made since the start of camp.

“We did a really good job with stunts and games,” Granville said when asked about his unit’s strong week of practice. “It’s one thing to straight rush, and you want to make sure you’re rushing well, but whenever you can start getting the eyes of the O-Line mixed up, it forces them to communicate on the line. I feel like we’ve really started getting the groove of that, and the sacks just started to come.”

As the 2026 season draws near, Granville feels like himself again.

“It felt really good,” he said. “Honestly, it’s filled with joy, filled with gratitude, and yeah, like I can help this team win football games, so it felt really good.”