At first, the pass was incomplete.

Dante Cephas stood alone on the right side of the field, staring down the Maryland end zone from the Terrapins’ seven-yard line. He shuffled his feet, got the defensive back guarding him to bite, and sprinted for the back right corner of the end zone. Quarterback Drew Allar’s pass to his wide receiver was perfectly placed, and Cephas got his left foot to touch green turf before his right foot touched white. Still, the sideline official waved his arms from side to side: incomplete.

It took a video review to overturn the call, an unfortunately bureaucratic end to a beautiful play. But in the end, Cephas’ catch stood. He had scored his first touchdown in a Penn State uniform, giving the Nittany Lions their first score of a dominant 51-15 win over Maryland. That touchdown was exactly what Cephas — and Penn State — needed.

That catch is just pic.twitter.com/QHxFOz1sUP

— Onward State (@OnwardState) November 4, 2023

For Cephas, that touchdown meant more than six points on the board. It was his first touchdown catch in one year and 27 days — the last time he scored was against Miami-Ohio wearing a Kent State uniform. Cephas had come into Penn State as one of the top wide receiver prospects in the transfer portal, but the former Golden Flash struggled to break into an open wide receiver competition.

Cephas was expected to enter the 2023 season as Penn State’s No. 3 option at wide receiver, sitting behind KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Trey Wallace and likely ahead of Omari Evans. Instead, Cephas, like the rest of the wide receiver corps, wasn’t able to produce the way that the Nittany Lions needed.

With Wallace out for the second time this season against Maryland, it felt as if Penn State was destined to put all its weight on the tight end room just to stay afloat in the passing game. Lambert-Smith would be an option, but Tyler Warren, Theo Johnson, and Khalil Dinkins would have to pull their weight. That wasn’t the case.

Cephas, it seemed, was destined to star against Maryland. James Franklin said that Cephas was due for a big game, and Cephas sounded confident when speaking with the media Wednesday. That confidence appeared to carry over into the game.

“Today felt great, just going out there, executing with the team,” Cephas said postgame. “We’ve been doing it in practice all week. So just today it felt great, just to execute it.”

Cephas executed to perfection, catching six passes on seven targets for 53 yards and two touchdowns.

Still, that performance, one fitting of a No. 2 option at the wide receiver position and not just the No. 3 choice didn’t seem to surprise many. It seemed that Cephas just had a bubble waiting to burst, and Maryland was the perfect time to do so.

“We know he’s capable of making the plays, and he might not have as many opportunities until this game, but it’s not really surprising to see him out there making plays,” tight end Tyler Warren said. “He’s a great player, and we knew he’s capable of it.”

Cephas had a difficult road to get to his performance against Maryland. Through the first games of the season, he started in two of his eight appearances, catching 11 passes for 146 yards and no touchdowns. He was the guy who was supposed to be a reliable option for Allar, but he just couldn’t get there.

A week prior, it was Lambert-Smith who acted as Penn State’s hero against Indiana with a game-winning touchdown catch. However, against Maryland, Cephas was the hero and the tone-setter. The Nittany Lions used his first touchdown grab as a springboard for their momentum that carried into the rest of the game.

“It’s huge,” Allar said postgame about the team’s fast start. “We stressed that a lot. It was a huge thing for us to go on and score a touchdown on that opening drive.”

Cephas continued to set the tone later in the game, catching a similar touchdown pass on the opposite corner of the same end zone. Another perfectly placed ball from Allar found its way into Cephas’ gloves as Penn State was putting the Terrapins in their coffin in front of their own fans.

Cephas was almost able to beat Maryland by himself. After Penn State’s defense had a rough outing against Indiana a week prior, it held its own against the Terrapins. The 12 points Cephas scored from his two touchdown catches were nearly enough to equal Maryland’s 15 points that it scored the whole game.

The advent of the Pennsylvania native couldn’t have come at a better time for the Nittany Lions. With Wallace out for the foreseeable future, Cephas may have to step into a larger role with the wide receiver group, especially with No. 3 Michigan coming to Beaver Stadium in a week. The coming-out party that Franklin predicted for Cephas earlier in the week might just be the same coming-out party that jumpstarts the rest of the receiver corps.

“Today sets us up for the rest of the season,” Cephas said. “We know we can spread the ball… I’ll catch any ball that comes to me.”