Guess how many catches Penn State football’s wide receivers had against Notre Dame in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff last week? Zero.

Yep, you read that correctly. In the biggest game of the season, the wide receivers were missing in action. Although it isn’t entirely their fault, we all know how the game ended, and their play undoubtedly was a huge factor.

Penn State’s wideouts weren’t only subpar in the Orange Bowl, though. The wide receiver production has taken a serious hit the last two seasons, which has led to a cacophony of consequences and will significantly affect the program in the future unless serious action is taken.

Let’s start by analyzing this past season’s stats. Trey Wallace led the group with 46 catches for 720 receiving yards. He had four touchdowns and averaged 48.0 yards per game. Wallace’s yards per game ranked No. 27 in the Big Ten, and every school except Iowa, Nebraska, and UCLA had at least one player with more. Several had two, and a few had three.

Omari Evans, Penn State’s de facto No. 2 wideout, had 415 yards for five touchdowns and 25.9 yards per game. Liam Clifford had 286 for one and 17.9 per game, while Julian Fleming had 176 for one and 11.0 per game in his only season as a Nittany Lion.

There were times, though, when Wallace and Evans showed promising signs. Wallace opened the season at West Virginia with 117 yards and two touchdowns. He had 84 yards against Washington and 59 and a touchdown in the Big Ten Championship game against Oregon.

Evans, meanwhile, had 116 yards and a touchdown against lowly Kent State. Despite the Golden Flashes’ caliber, they were still an FBS opponent. He occasionally made highlight-reel deep catches, but those were too few and far between.

However, they were too inconsistent. Wallace did not have another game with over 50 yards until USC in October. Evans went three consecutive games with one reception, and he had another without a catch excluding last week’s performance.

All four wide receivers frequently struggled to hold onto passes or get open. Clifford said the ball “didn’t really find” the wideouts against the Fighting Irish, and that would explain why. Additionally, it probably isn’t a coincidence that Allar’s fourth-quarter interception was intended for a wideout.

For what it’s worth, both Wallace and Evans are expected to transfer elsewhere.

In 2023, KeAndre Lambert-Smith was expected to be Penn State’s No. 1 option. He had 673 receiving yards and ended the season with two catches for 28 yards in the final four games. The next-best option was Dante Cephas with 246 yards and two touchdowns. Wallace, who missed five games due to injury, had 228 yards. Clifford had 130.

Lambert-Smith transferred to Auburn, where he had a career-best 981 yards and eight touchdowns despite playing for a 5-7 team. Cephas declared for the 2025 NFL Draft, but he had just 184 yards over 13 appearances at Kansas State last season.

Before 2023, however, the Nittany Lions did not have this problem. Parker Washington missed time in 2022 but had 611 receiving yards for 61.1 per game. Before that, Jahan Dotson’s 1,182-yard season was one of the best in America and got him drafted in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Penn State has had many good wide receivers under James Franklin, but what’s gone wrong and where does his program go from here?

Unfortunately, the two-year experience with wide receivers coach Marques Hagans isn’t going well. Now might be the time for both sides to consider whether it’s right to continue this marriage. Wallace and Clifford were four-star recruits, and Hagans deserves significant blame for their inability to reach that potential.

If Hagans and Penn State part ways, significant resources should be allocated to getting the next hire right. Additionally, it might be wise to splurge on a top wideout in the transfer portal to bring credibility back to the room.

It also shouldn’t be lost that Franklin, who has been a wide receivers coach in the past, has overseen this. He consistently praised the group throughout the season and once criticized the media for lack of positive publicity when they had good games, which happened occasionally at best.

However, one might look at last season’s offensive success and wonder how Penn State got so close to reaching the national championship game despite its wide receiver woes. This was because Tyler Warren had a generational season at tight end, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen both rushed for over 1,000 yards, and the offensive line was dominant. Although the duo was utilized in the receiving game, they aren’t wide receivers. Warren will be in the NFL, and Allar’s top receiving option at the moment appears to be USC transfer Kyron Hudson. It is unknown what kind of chemistry he’ll have with Hudson or Troy transfer Devante Ross, although both appear to be decent pickups.

With Warren gone, there’s more urgency to find Allar another marquee receiving option. His development would benefit from one, as would the offense.

If the lack of production doesn’t change, the Nittany Lions won’t be this successful next season. It’s much harder to win in modern college football with an offense that doesn’t have a good receiving game, even if the run game is as outstanding as Penn State’s.

Additionally, the program’s recruitment of wide receivers will continue to fall behind Ohio State, Oregon, and other top teams, which will make the competitive gap even harder to close. Penn State can and should do better than it has recently, even with those schools in the mix.

The past two seasons of wide receiver play is not only embarrassing but a complete failure on the part of the coaching staff. The group’s incompetence likely cost Penn State a spot in the national championship game because the rest of the offense was good enough that the wideouts would’ve probably only needed to be half-decent to punch a ticket to Atlanta. Penn State’s program risks catastrophic consequences in terms of recruiting and on-field success if it doesn’t take a serious look at the problem and make changes.