Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1514597
2 6 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M KEY LOSS Dante Cephas | R-Sr. Finished his lone season at Penn State with 22 catches for 246 yards and 2 scores. He entered the transfer portal following the Peach Bowl. KEY RETURNEES Liam Clifford | R-Jr. Started one game but played in all 13. Clifford totaled 13 catches for 130 yards. Omari Evans | Jr. Had an up-and-down sophomore season. Evans saw more action late in the year than he did in the beginning. He finished 2023 with 4 receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown. Anthony Ivey | R-So. Played in just one game — the Lions' opener against West Virginia — after redshirting in 2022. Ivey recorded no counting stats. Tyler Johnson | R-So. Did not see any game action for the second consecutive season. KeAndre Lambert-Smith | Sr. Started 12 of 13 games for the Lions during his junior season. Finished with 53 catches for 673 yards, both of which were team highs. He also recorded 4 touchdowns. Malik McClain | Sr. Came to Penn State from Florida State during the 2023 offseason with hopes of cracking the Lions' rotation at receiver. He did not end up doing so. McClain finished with just 6 catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. Malick Meiga | Sr. Saw more work on special teams than at wide receiver. Meiga finished his ju- nior season with just 6 catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. Kaden Saunders | R-So. Only saw intermittent work as a re- ceiver. He finished with 6 catches for 57 yards and a touchdown. Harrison Wallace III | R-Jr. Dealt with injuries that caused him to miss five full games and nearly all of a sixth in 2023. He finished with 19 catches for 228 yards and a touchdown. Carmelo Taylor | R-Fr. Took a redshirt year in 2023 after see- ing no game action. NEWCOMERS Julian Fleming | Sr. Pennsylvania native and former five- star recruit joins the Nittany Lions for his final college season in 2024 after catching 79 passes for 973 yards and 7 touchdowns in four years at Ohio State. Peter Gonzalez | Fr. Will enroll at Penn State this summer as a three-star recruit in the On3 Indus- try Ranking. As a senior at Pittsburgh Central Catholic, he caught 47 passes for 1,081 yards and 12 touchdowns. Josiah Brown | Fr. Enrolled at Penn State in early Janu- ary. His initial focus will be on rehab and recovery after suffering a lower-body injury in the middle of his senior season at Malverne (N.Y.) Senior High. Tyseer Denmark | Fr. Will be a summer enrollee. The three- star recruit caught 30 passes for 350 yards and 4 touchdowns as a senior at Imhotep Charter. 2024 Outlook Penn State's receivers will be the team's most dissected, discussed and fretted-over position group this offseason. Assistant coach Marques Hagans enters his second season as the leader of that unit, and whether or not he can put his stamp on the group at large and raise its level of play will be a huge talking point from now until Aug. 31 when Penn State opens the 2024 season at West Virginia. After some uncertainty, Lambert-Smith, the team's leading pass catcher in 2023, will be coming back for another year. Hopes are high for Wallace to enjoy a breakthrough, provided he can stay healthy throughout the year. He returned for the Peach Bowl and showed glimpses of his potential. But being available is the most important thing for him moving forward. The addition of Fleming adds desperately needed competition to the receivers room. He also has leadership traits that the group could use. Beyond those three, questions will continue to linger about the depth chart at receiver. Is 2024 the year Saunders breaks out? Will Ivey finally find his way to the playing field? Can McClain be more pro- ductive in Year 2 at Penn State? Could Clifford become a starter? As you can see and surely know, there are many more questions than answers with the receivers as the new year begins. And, frustratingly, it's going to be hard to answer almost all of them until the season begins. Simply put, while some interesting talent and potential exists for Hagans, this group's play in 2023 means everyone will be taking a wait-and-see approach before anointing the room as improved, unimproved or unchanged. — Greg Pickel Wideouts Still Have Much To Prove Harrison Wallace III has been hailed as a potential break- out candidate, but he's had trouble staying healthy in his two active seasons at Penn State. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL 2024 LOOK AHEAD WIDE RECEIVERS