Where have Cephas, McClain been, and can WR group salvage season?

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The first bad sign came during the preseason, when news broke that Dante Cephas had failed to beat out Harrison Wallace III for the No. 2 wide receiver job.

Big red flag.

Because with all due respect to Wallace, who had a decent 2022 season (19 catches, 273 yards, 1 TD) and has been in the program for three years now, Cephas was supposed to be a legit, can't-miss kind of guy out of the transfer portal.

Cephas is the guy who had caught 82 passes for Kent State in 2021 and 145 passes over four years there. His 145 receptions were only one less than ALL Penn State wide receivers combined had made in their careers entering this year. Here's that breakdown:

• KeAndre Lambert-Smith 73
• Malik McClain 33
• Harrison Wallace III 19
• Liam Clifford 8
• Kaden Saunders 2
• Malick Meiga 6
• Omari Evans 5

Check out the No. 2 guy on that list, above -- McClain. Much more on him in just a bit.

Landing Cephas was supposed to be a giant get for the Lions from the transfer portal. But he's barely been a factor, with only nine catches for 131 yards through seven games.

Cephas played only three snaps at Ohio State before the Lions' final possession, then he logged nine snaps on that drive and caught two passes for 28 yards.

Where was he all day? You mean to tell me with all the problems Penn State is having at wide receiver, that a guy who's in his fifth year of college ball and who now has more than 150 receptions in his career simply could not even get on the field?

Think about how absurd that is.

When James Franklin was asked Tuesday about why Cephas didn't play more, his reply was that Cephas is really considered a starter. But check out these snap counts for the wide receivers in that game (broken down at Black Shoe Diaries):

• Wallace 69
• KLS 62
• Clifford 23
• Cephas 12
• Saunders 10

Remember that red flag mentioned above, comparing Wallace and Cephas? Sure, OK, Wallace is a decent receiver, but how on earth can he possibly be so much better than Cephas that he gets 69 snaps to only 12 for the far more experienced guy?

Yes, Cephas played four years at Kent State in the MAC, and it is 100 percent reasonable to believe that the competition there was so mediocre that it simply did not prepare him for what he's now facing at Penn State.

And yes, Cephas didn't arrive on campus until June because he had to finish his academics at Kent State, so he missed valuable development time with his new team.

Regardless, something's just not right with all this. Because again, this guy has played a ton of football and had a good bit of success, but for some reason he just has not been a big part of the offense. He has played a total of 146 snaps -- I was surprised the number is that high, actually -- but having only nine catches for 131 yards and no TDs is just nowhere near enough production.

Here's the extremely long, sorta word salad answer Franklin gave Tuesday when asked about Cephas and trying to find some level of consistency in the receiver rotation.

"I think that's a fair question. I think for us what we've been trying to do really for the last year is we're trying to get some consistency because if you are constantly just rotating guys in, then it's hard for guys to get into a rhythm. You want there to be a group of guys that have differentiated themselves and allow those guys to get enough reps and enough opportunities to show what they can do. I think when you look at Trey over the last year, maybe two years, and you look at KeAndre, there's been enough evidence that they've shown they've done it in games in my opinion.

"The big discussion this offseason was who was going to be the third guy? Trey we lost for a couple of games based on some bumps and bruises and things like that. So all I can do is take the body of work from games, but the things that you guys don't get to see is obviously the consistency in practice as well. That's really what we've been looking for, consistency in practice of people to separate.

"I think you guys have heard me say very similar to how you described it, we have a group of guys that I think are all competing, but no one is separating themselves from the group, and that's either in practice or that's in the game reps, which you guys have been able to see.

"We're going against a really good defense every single day at practice when we go good-on-good, so it was really pretty good information to base it on. You know, how are you winning against Johnny Dixon? How are you winning against Kalen King. How are you winning against Daequan Hardy and so on and so forth?

"To me there's enough information to make decisions on, and we've been talking for a while that people have not separated themselves.

"The other thing I think is difficult sometimes for the parents and sometimes for the fans to understand is you also have the things I mentioned in the beginning, the missed assignments. Sometimes you guys don't know a guy ran the wrong route, a guy is blocking on a run play when it's a pass play. Those things factor into decision-making as well because you can be as productive as you want, but if you are making too many missed assignments, then it's kind of a wash. All those things factor into it as well.

"It may not be even as drastic of blocking looking at the wrong signal and running -- we're throwing a pass, and you are blocking down the field.  It may not be as drastic as that.  It may be the details of a route. Supposed to be at 12 yards, and you are breaking it at 8 yards. It may be your landmarks to the inside edge of the numbers, and you are truly in the divide. That spacing impacts how you stress the defense and that spacing impacts the quarterback's decision-making and accuracy.

"It's all those things that go into it. Some of those things are hard for people that don't know exactly what their job responsibilities are to judge them."

Whew! Got all that?

The biggest takeaway is really that, in the coaches' eyes, a bunch of these wide receivers simply are not doing enough in practice to warrant being out on the field more.

Which is something, really, when you consider how little the guys who are getting on the field have been producing.

If there's really that big of a dropoff still between KLS and Wallace and then everyone else, it's certainly fair to wonder if these receiver problems will ever get worked out this season.

Now let's get back to Malik McClain. Remember, the guy who had the third-most catches on this roster during his college career entering this season. He spent his first two years at Florida State and caught 33 passes there, then burst onto the scene with four catches for 58 yards and a touchdown in the opener against West Virginia.

McClain has barely been seen or heard from since.

He caught one ball against Delaware and one against Illinois, but he also dropped two passes in the latter game. Apparently, those two drops landed him on the bench, and he hasn't gotten off it much the past four games.

Franklin has not been asked about McClain lately. But the coach did make this reference -- which seemed to be aimed at both Cephas and McClain -- during his post-practice press briefing Wednesday.

"I think some guys that have kind of come in have transitioned a little bit slower than we had hoped," Franklin said.

That may be the best answer we get, since Franklin isn't likely to throw Cephas or McClain under the bus. But in McClain's case, at least, he's 6-foot-4, and you'd think there would be something he could do with that size alone to help out in the passing game.

Hey, who knows, maybe he's dropping all kinds of passes in practice. Or missing assignments left and right, as Franklin noted that some are doing.

The bottom line is we don't know for sure what's going on with Cephas and McClain. But we do know this, which was the most important admission of the week by Franklin:

"We’re behind in the passing game."

Will Penn State start to figure things out Saturday against Indiana? Well, maybe not.

The Lions are favored by 32 points, so the expectation is they'll blow out the Hoosiers. But Indiana's defense has actually been solid against the pass, ranking 23rd in the nation, allowing 191.7 yards per game.

The flip side is that the Hoosiers are awful against the run, ranking 106th and giving up 174.4 yards per game.

So, Penn State's game plan probably will include a heavy dose of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen on the ground.

Still, the Lions have to start preparing for Maryland next week and Michigan the week after. They cannot just run and run and run because it's working against this terrible opponent. They need to find some level of success and consistency in the passing game, and -- beating a dead horse here -- give Drew Allar opportunities to take some shots down the field.

Penn State did not adequately prepare its offense in the six games leading up to Ohio State for what it would need to do against the Buckeyes in the passing game. Now there are two more games to prepare for Michigan, and there needs to be more of an emphasis on developing Allar to be more than just a game manager.

The big if in all of this is whether the wide receivers can become good enough to help make the offense dangerous, and thereby give Allar the kind of weapons he needs so that he and the offense can reach their potential.

"Production in the passing game I think is obviously something that we're putting a ton of emphasis on and creating separation," Franklin said. "I think that's one of the things that is important when I'm evaluating is, OK, if you are just evaluating the tight ends and the wide receivers in the passing game, sometimes the quarterback can impact that.

"So, take that out of it. How much are we creating separation, either on a vertical or on a run-away route, and that's what you can do as a skill player to show that you should be getting more opportunities by the way you separate and the way you're able to get open. Our production has not been there as consistently as it needs to be. I don't think there's any doubt about that."