Coach Tim DeRuyter reopened Fresno State's doors to the junior college rankings with his first signing class that his staff had a full year to assemble.

The Bulldogs, looking to fill starting holes at some positions and create depth at others, added seven junior college players out of a class of 24 recruits during National Signing Day on Wednesday.

On top of that, Fresno State already had added four junior college players who enrolled this semester so they could participate in spring practice, which starts Feb. 25 and culminates with the Spring Game on March 23.

The junior college ranks essentially had been an abandoned recruiting avenue by the previous staff, which preferred to fill classes with high school players and only on rare occasion brought in a JC transfer.

But with DeRuyter perhaps looking to maximize Fresno State's final chance with three-year starting quarterback Derek Carr, the Bulldogs went searching for immediate help while also signing prospects to develop into contributors later.

"I just think you always have to have competition," DeRuyter said. "Some years, like especially this year more than others, you're going to have to bring older guys to come in and have that competition where you want it to be and not rely on guys to go through the natural process.

"Ideally, next year, we'll sign maybe only five junior college guys. This year, we had to go with 11 just because of where we were."

Despite the emphasis on junior college help, the apparent headliner was high school quarterback Zack Greenlee of Lincoln High-Stockton. He stayed true to his early oral commitment to Fresno State despite taking a visit to Mississippi State late last month.

The 6-foot-1, 183-pound Greenlee caught the attention of many college coaches, along with Fresno State fans, after he appeared on national TV in early January wearing a Bulldogs logo on his eye black while showing off his accuracy and winning the Under Armour All-America quarterback skills challenge.

During his senior year, Greenlee threw for 1,953 yards and 22 touchdowns to just two interceptions. Both Rivals.com and Scout.com rated Greenlee a three-star recruit (out of a five-star scale).

"Zack is one of our kind of guys," DeRuyter said. "He's a Valley guy, plays with a chip on his shoulder, knows how to win. He's a guy that had a late run from some schools in BCS conferences, and still decided this was the place he wanted to come and be our next leader of Bulldog football.

"Anytime when someone is committed to you wants to look at other places, you're kind of torn between 'I want you to make the right choice for you,' but at the same time, 'we've got to look at guys in case you do decide to look somewhere else.' It's always a constant in recruiting. You're never comfortable until today when everybody is locked in."

Scout.com also listed receiver Da'Mari Scott of Cathedral-Los Angeles and cornerback Treshon Broughton of Vista Murrieta-Murrieta as three-star prospects. Rivals.com awarded three-star ratings to offensive lineman Sean Rubalcava of Cerritos College, running back Dontel James of Summit-Fontana, linebacker Stephen Van Hook of Citrus Hill-Perris and cornerback Tray Hall of Riverside City College.

Overall, Fresno State's class was rated 64th in the nation by Rivals.com and 76th by Scout.com.

This class marked Fresno State's largest since the Bulldogs inked 25 recruits in 2007.

The four junior college transfers who are already taking classes at Fresno State this spring -- quarterback Brian Burrell (Bakersfield City College), safety Rodney Mathews (Citrus College) and offensive linemen Patrick Kim (Mt. San Antonio College) and Josh Tremblay (American River College) -- are considered part of last year's scholarship class.