Rising Penn State pass rusher to miss extended time with injury

Coming out of the spring, Penn State football was looking to redshirt freshman edge rusher Max Granville to become a significant part of the Nittany Lions’ defensive front in 2025. Now, it appears the emergence of the young defensive end will have to wait.

On Thursday, we learned that Granville has sustained a setback due to a long-term injury. Tyler Donohue of Lions247 was the first to report the news. The nature of the injury is unspecified.

Granville was a consensus four-star prospect in the 2025 recruiting cycle before reclassifying and joining the Penn State football program last July. He appeared in seven games as a true freshman, making one tackle and recording one pass breakup.

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“He was a guy that flashed as a true freshman,”James Franklin said in April. “We went back and forth on whether we were going to burn his [red]shirt or not.

“He’s gotten bigger and stronger. He’s put on really good weight. It’s really important to him. He works extremely hard at it. When he first got here in the fall, he flashed mainly as a pass rusher. Now he’s got the size to be physical in the run game as well. So he’s going to be a guy that we think is going to factor in for us this year, and be part of that competition.”

Franklin will address the media for the first time since the Blue White Game at noon on Thursday.

Penn State looking for young pass-rushing talent to step forward in 2025

Going into fall camp, the first wave of the Nittany Lions’ pass rush looks to be largely solidified with veteran defensive ends Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zuriah Fisher. But behind the two seniors, Penn State will look to a crop of unproven talent to help fill the void left by Abdul Carter.

A likely candidate for immediate production is redshirt junior Enai White, the former top-50 recruit who transferred from Texas A&M in December. White only appeared in one game last fall after suffering a season-ending injury as a sophomore.

The only other defensive ends on the Nittany Lions’ roster with game action are redshirt freshman Jaylen Harvey, who made five appearances last fall, and redshirt sophomore Jordan Mayer, who played primarily on special teams.

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