Penn State football: True freshman DE now being called ‘Chop Robinson 2.0’

The newest addition to the Penn State football program is being equated to first-round NFL Draft talent weeks after arriving on campus. True freshman edge rusher Max Granville showed up in Happy Valley less than a month ago, but he’s already drawing comparisons to former Nittany Lions and current Miami Dolphins defensive end Chop Robinson.

Following practice Tuesday evening, junior defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton shared with reporters the nickname that Max Granville has been given inside the Penn State locker room. Granville, according to Dennis-Sutton, is now being referred to as “Chop 2.0” by his new Nittany Lion teammates.

Freshman DE Max Granville is being referred to as…. Chop 2.0 per Dani Dennis-Sutton pic.twitter.com/6XRsr8eFo2

— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) August 21, 2024

The comparison is high praise considering what Chop Robinson accomplished in his short time in Happy Valley. Over two seasons with Penn State football, Robinson totaled 41 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, and three forced fumbles. A second-team All-American last year, Robinson was selected No. 21 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.

More impressively, Max Granville should be preparing for his senior year of high school right now. At the end of July, the Sugar Land, Texas, native reclassified from the Nittany Lions’ 2025 recruiting class and joined Penn State football a year early.

“This was always Max’s decision, but in terms of development, if the goal is to keep getting better, from my perspective, it was like a no-brainer,” Granville’s father, former NFL linebacker Billy Granville, said of the move.

Granville drawing praise from Penn State football coaching staff

© Dan Rainville/USA Today Network

Max Granville isn’t just impressing his teammates; he’s standing out to his new coaches as well. Even from the earliest days of training camp, the former four-star edge rusher was garnering praise from the Penn State football coaching staff.

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

“He’s also tested really well with our baseline testing with Coach Losey and that staff as soon as he was cleared and able to do that…”

“I really have high expectations for Max, and I feel like he’s a guy that has really, really good twitch,” added defensive coordinator Tom Allen. “[He has] great first-step quickness. There’s a lot of things naturally that we’ve seen in practice for a couple of days.”

While Granville may be in more of an understudy role this season behind the likes of Dennis-Sutton and Abdul Carter, the attention he’s grabbing in his introduction to college football is a promising sign for the future of the Nittany Lions pass rush.

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