Last July it was EDGE Max Granville who reclassified and enrolled early for Penn State — this year it’s Daniel Jennings at the same position.
It was announced Friday that Jennings, the No. 1 player in West Virginia in the 2026 class, will be reclassifying to the 2025 class and enrolling at Penn State this summer.
Here’s what this means for the current roster and recruiting implications.
Current defensive end room
Penn State’s defensive end room looks different than last year with Abdul Carter off to start his NFL career after being selected by the New York Giants at pick No. 3 in the 2025 NFL Draft. In addition to Carter’s departure, Amin Vanover is currently looking for an NFL home after going undrafted while Smith Vilbert transferred to North Carolina for his seventh year.
Carter was one of the best players in college football, while Vanover and Vilbert were rotational pieces. That leaves just Dani Dennis-Sutton, who saw meaningful snaps at defensive end last year. Veteran presence Zuriah Fisher is back in the mix after being sidelined with an injury in 2024, and will look to return to his strong finish to the 2023 campaign.
Granville is expected to take a step forward, having filled in for Carter when he was sidelined in the Fiesta Bowl following an injury suffered. Penn State ideally plays four defensive ends, leaving the door open for a ton of guys.
Jennings will join a 2025 recruiting class that has four other defensive ends with early enrollees in 4-star Yvan Kemajou and 4-star Dayshaun Burnett plus 4-star Cortez Harris and 4-star Chaz Coleman, who are both set to move in this weekend. Any of the five can compete for playing time with a strong summer, but it’s more likely they end up maintaining their redshirt.
Other names to watch to compete to be in the rotation are 3-star Texas A&M transfer and former No. 2 player in Pennsylvania Enai White and redshirt freshmen Jaylen Harvey and Mylachi Williams.
Granville-like impact?
When Granville signed with Penn State in July, he was listed at 6-foot-3 and weighed 225 pounds. Jennings is currently 6-foot-2, 220 pounds.
Both players boast similar frames and Granville proved right when he stepped on campus that he could physically compete. James Franklin said in August at local media day that Granville had “tested really well” with the program’s baseline testing with strength coach Chuck Losey and his staff.
With Jennings reclassifying, he and the staff have to both feel comfortable where he is physically and that there’s no need for another year of high school football. Additionally, Jennings must be prepared off the field to play at a Power 4 program, as just like Granville he had to meet the NCAA’s early academic qualifier.
Defensive end Max Granville (18) hits a football out of a coaches hand during football practice on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024 outside Holuba Hall in University Park, Pa.
Granville was a player that was a “yellow light” for Penn State, indicating he was on the brink of burning redshirt, but there was no point in having him do so due to the quality of depth at defensive end for the 2024 squad. Despite this, the staff indicated that they were comfortable having Granville burn his redshirt if needed and play a meaningful role, which he did during the Fiesta Bowl when he filled in for Carter.
Jennings can end up being on the same trajectory as Granville, assuming he catches on during the summer and also has a more than two-month headstart over Granville’s August enrollment.
Recruiting implications
Penn State originally had two defensive ends in its 2025 class with Harris and Coleman, but ended up with five. Kemajou is listed as a defensive end when defensive tackle was a possibility, Burnett transitioned from linebacker, which was expected at some point during his Penn State career and then the late addition of Jennings.
It’s a crowded room and can become deeper in the future with 4-star LaVar Arrington II potentially making the switch to defensive end down the road. It’s a good problem to have, but it could result in players from the bunch transferring out in the foreseeable future if they don’t see a path to playing time early.
Now with Jennings reclassifying, it leaves one defensive line commitment in Penn State’s 2026 class with 3-star defensive tackle Isaac Chukwurah. In his first three years of building a recruiting class as the defensive line coach, Deion Barnes has landed at least three recruits per class that played the EDGE in high school.
So with official visits heating up and Jennings now set to enroll, Barnes has zero commits in the 2026 class at defensive end. There’s plenty of names in the mix, and Barnes can now potentially add another guy to his room by clearing an extra space with Jennings reclassifying.
The top guys on the board are hot commodities nationally: 4-star Luke Wafle and 4-star Carter Meadows.
Wafle is the brother of Penn State defensive tackle Owen Wafle, who transferred to the Nittany Lions from Michigan in the winter. Luke is the No. 55 player nationally, No. 6 defensive end and No. 1 player in New Jersey, and has finalists of Penn State, Ohio State, Texas, USC and Florida.
Meadows is the No. 72 player nationally, No. 8 defensive end and No. 1 in Washington, D.C. He has finalists of Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and South Carolina.
Other names to keep an eye on are No. 8 player in Pennsylvania Jackson Samuels Ford from Malvern Prep, 4-star Titan Davis and 3-star Ashton Blatt from in-state Central Catholic High School.
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