Major WR transfer in Dante Cephas picks Penn State as WR coach departs

The addition of Cephas gives Penn State a major pickup at the wide receiver position as the offense looks to debut a new starter at quarterback.

And should allow the offense to take an important step forward going into the 2023 season as Penn State looks to build off its Rose Bowl victory and establish itself as a power in the Big Ten alongside Ohio State and Michigan.

Keep up: College football transfer portal tracker for 2023's top players

Drew Allar, a former 5-star and top 100 national prospect out of the Cleveland area, is expected to start at quarterback next season after the departure of Sean Clifford.

Dante Cephas production

Cephas is coming off a solid year at Kent State, catching 48 passes for 744 yards and scoring three touchdowns.

In the season before, Cephas had 82 receptions for 1,240 yards and nine touchdown catches, becoming the first Kent State wide receiver to surpass 1,000 yards receiving in the 21st century.

In total Cephas has 12 touchdown receptions and 2,139 total yards.

Cephas is slated to arrive on Penn State's campus after the spring semester and is considered the consensus No. 1 wide receiver on the team's roster.

Penn State at wide receiver

Cephas is set to join a position rotation that includes KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who had 24 receptions for 389 yards and four touchdowns this season.

Lambert-Smith had solid performances near the end of the season, catching eight passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns in games against Michigan State to win the Land Grant Trophy and against Utah in the Rose Bowl.

Other options at receiver include Harrison Wallace, Omari Evans, Liam Clifford, and Kaden Saunders.

WRs coach is out

The announcement that Cephas had transferred to Penn State came around the same time the school said former wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield was "relieved of his duties."

"I'm proud of the kids whose named are etched in the Penn State record books, with two in the top 15 for receiving yards, and two in the top ten in receptions," Stubblefield said in part.

"And finally, I am elated to have been part of a team that went 11-2, culminating in a Rose Bowl victory," he added.

College football transfer portal

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school's compliance office. Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player's name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player's request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player's name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player's name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him. And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn't have to give him another scholarship.

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