Penn State football: Early Signing Day tracker

Early signing day is upon us and James Franklin wasted no time getting many of his prized commits to sign their NLI.

It began with a three-star defensive lineman from Maryland, but Penn State has gotten many of its top players from the class of 2024 to sign today, including a duo of star running backs (sound familiar), and the only five-star in the class.

Here is the complete list of signees on early signing day for the Penn State recruiting class of 2024. Starting with the first of the day, Xavier Gilliam.

Gilliam is a 6-foot-3 developmental edge with length and size at 265 pounds. The Nittany Lions have shown an ability to turn players like this into stars on the edge.

Cousins has been committed to Penn State since his sophomore year. With a 6-foot-6 315-pound frame, Cousins profiles as a legit people-mover on the interior of the offensive line.

The three-star linebacker likely won't be a part of St1x C1ty in his career, but he could be an effective inside linebacker down the road. He has the prototypical size to play in the middle of a Big Ten defense at 6-foot-2 215 pounds.

Quinton Martin dominated the WPIAL at Belle Vernon and is the No. 1 recruit in the state of Pennsylvania. At 6-foot-2 200 pounds, Martin could handle a small workload next season. Franklin needs to keep the best recruits in the state and he did it here.

Mitchell is Penn State's only four-star commit on the defensive side of the ball, so Franklin needed to get him to sign today. Mitchell is a bit undersized to play outside corner and fits the Kalen King mold more than the Joey Porter Jr. mold.

Reynolds is Penn State's only five-star in the 2024 class and at 6-foot-4 220 pounds, he will fit perfectly in Andy Kotelnicki's offense.

If Quinton Martin is going to be the thunder in this iteration of the Lawn Boyz, the 5-foot-11 170-pound Smith will be the lightning. Smith is a home-run hitter who Kotelnicki will love to use on gadget plays, but likely won't get many touches until Nick Singelton and Kaytron Allen move on.

At 6-foot-7 265-pounds, Sexton needs to add a lot of weight to survive at offensive tackle in the Big Ten. He'll likely redshirt as a freshman. Sexton was a quarterback until his senior year and is a perfect piece of clay to mold into a starting offensive tackle three years down the road.

Harbour already has the size at 6-foot-3 325 pounds, and could provide immediate depth on the interior offensive line.

Penn State needs wide receivers and Brown is the first of three, three-star receivers to sign from this class.

Franklin has done a nice job recruiting the South but primarily gets players to come up from Florida. This time he dips into SEC country nabbing the 6-foot-6 275-pound interior defensive lineman from Georgia.

James Franklin has a few players coming from western PA, and Gonzalez is one of two commits from Central Catholic. The 6-foot-2 receiver could be a big-play threat.

Andrews was a two-way star in high school playing on the defensive and offensive lines. In fact, 247Sports had him rated as an offensive tackle, but Andrews announced that he's going to focus on defense for the Nittany Lions.

This means Penn State has two four-star defensive players in the class of 2024, instead of just one.

More defensive line depth for new DC Tom Allen. Cook is 6-foot-4 260 pounds, and likely needs to add more weight to play on the interior of the D-line.

More offensive line depth for Kotelnicki's offense. Brewer is 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, so needs to add some size.

Lane was listed as an athlete, but Penn State will play him in the defensive secondary. With Liam Andrews flipping to defense and Lane sticking in the secondary, Penn State's class is looking a lot stronger on that side of the ball. They came into the day with Jon Mitchell as the only four-star who was certain to play defense.

Antoine Belgrave-Shorter was high school teammates with Jon Mitchell and committed just two days after Mitchell.

Boyer is another offensive tackle prospect with serious height and length at 6-foot-7 but needs to add weight. He'll like redshirt as a freshman.

Franklin continues to add in the trenches with another edge-rusher.

Grunkemeyer was a late bloomer from Ohio who went into his junior season with only one Division 1 offer. James Franklin got to him early as his stock rose and got a commitment from another Ohio quarterback. Grunkemeyer appears to be the succession plan once Drew Allar is done in Happy Valley.