Last fall, James Franklin brought in wrestling legend Cael Sanderson to speak to his Penn State team during its bye week. The Nittany Lions were undefeated after a thrilling win over USC, and there was adversity awaiting them the next week at Wisconsin. Sanderson’s message, Franklin said at the time, centered on being appreciative and being present.
Penn State wide receivers coach Marques Hagans was listening intently to Sanderson’s talk with the team, and it resonated with him. He took some of Sanderson’s words and put them in his office.
As Hagans enters his third season with the Nittany Lions, he and his position group are under the microscope after shortcomings over the past two seasons. And while he tries to pilot the Penn State wide receivers through a season with national championship aspirations, Hagans is leaning on Sanderson’s message amid the scrutiny.
“He said, ‘Don’t inhale, whether good or bad,'” Hagans said in Holuba Hall on Tuesday night. “It’s something that just stuck with me because you can take bad things and inhale and it can destroy you, or you can take good things and inhale and it can destroy you because it becomes too much of a high and you start thinking too highly of yourself.
“So just something that we focus on is just don’t inhale. Just focus on the task at hand. People are going to talk regardless of whether you do good or bad, don’t inhale and just focus on the task at hand. That’s kind of something I took from him [from when] he came and spoke to the team. I think it’s been really beneficial for us as a group as well.”
The last time Hagans’ wide receivers were on the field has been the lasting impression this offseason. In the 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Orange Bowl, the Penn State wide receivers didn’t catch a pass from quarterback Drew Allar.
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The Nittany Lions were the only non-service academy to not complete a pass to a wide receiver during a game last season. It was the second straight season the group struggled in a postseason game. In the Peach Bowl after the 2023 season, a Penn State wide receiver didn’t catch a pass until the fourth quarter in the loss to Ole Miss.
On Tuesday night, Hagans wanted to keep the conversation moving forward.
“If it ain’t happening in 2025, we don’t talk about it,” the 42-year-old said. “We don’t live in the past.”
But Hagans acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding his position group. Top wide receiver Harrison Wallace III (46 catches, 720 yards, four touchdowns) is going through spring ball at Ole Miss. Speedster Omari Evans (21 catches, 415 yards, five touchdowns) transferred to Washington in January. Veteran presence Julian Fleming (14 catches, 176 yards, one touchdown) is hoping to get an opportunity in the NFL later this spring.
That leaves redshirt senior Liam Clifford (18 catches, 286 yards, one touchdown), redshirt freshman Tyseer Denmark (two catches, 28 yards, one touchdown) and redshirt junior Anthony Ivey (one catch, 15 yards) as the only wide receivers on the roster who caught passes at Penn State last season. Redshirt junior Kaden Saunders, who has eight catches for 77 yards and a touchdown in his career, appeared in only four games and didn’t play an offensive snap because of an injury last season.
The program took steps to address the issues with the additions of Kyron Hudson (USC) and Devonte Ross (Troy) from the NCAA Transfer Portal during the winter. But there’s more to do. Even athletic director Pat Kraft said in February that it’s “not a secret” the Nittany Lions still have work to do at the position.
“I don’t disagree with that,” Hagans said. “I love the guys that we have, but the ultimate thing is to always constantly get better anyway. That’s nothing that the guys in the room would shy away from or feel a certain way about hearing. That’s recruiting. My job is to bring the best guys in the country and then replace the guys that are here, and their job is to make sure it doesn’t happen. If we build that year after year, we’ll have a room for guys that will become elite and be the best in the country. So I don’t disagree.”
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There’s other new blood on the roster that Hagans appeared excited about Tuesday night. Freshmen Matt Outten, Koby Howard and Lyrick Samuel enrolled in January and are making early impressions on the practice field. Top247 prospect Jeff Exinor Jr. will join them later this summer. Redshirt freshman Peter Gonzalez is practicing, too, after he suffered a season-ending injury early in fall camp last August.
At this point, Hagans knows what he’s looking for from his players.
“I got to find guys who love football and guys who are tough — excuse my language — tough as s—,” Hagans said. “Like every day, like if you were playing football in the parking lot and you roll the football out and we were gonna tackle, they wouldn’t give a s—. They just would line up and play. So we need guys like that, and then guys smart enough to be able to take the things that we’re doing schematically and apply them on the field in a competitive setting against the best teams in the country.
“And when that happens, those are the right guys. And guys that show up every day ready to compete. Not just show up to practice because practice is practice, but show up with the intent to dominate.”
There are questions and storylines at different positions up and down the Penn State roster, but the wide receivers will be in the limelight the most. Hagans, who had spent more than a decade coaching at Virginia before joining the Nittany Lions in 2023, acknowledged he needed to adjust to the attention that the Penn State program receives and he was caught off-guard a bit by the fishbowl the Nittany Lions exist in.
But he’s working with his players, who are well-aware of the criticism, to channel it into something positive and not let it wear on them.
“I think you got to compartmentalize it at times,” Hagans said. “You can use it for motivation at different parts of the year, and then during the season or as you get close to the season, that’s something you really can’t pay attention to because we got a job to do. It really doesn’t matter what people’s opinions are, whether good or bad.”
A couple years ago, Franklin was discussing the Penn State offensive line, and he said he was finished talking about the expectations for the group. It was time for it to go out and show what it could do. The offensive line rose to the occasion and is now a program strength.
The Nittany Lions need the wide receivers to similarly take a step forward. Penn State was agonizingly close to an opportunity to play for a national championship last season, and that statistic — zero catches for wide receivers — has hung over the Nittany Lions this offseason.
Hagans is in charge of changing that narrative.
“Every day we’re getting close,” Hagans said. “Every day we’re getting closer. So I know what you want me to say, but every day we’re just working to get closer. And I think everybody will see it when it happens, but that’s the goal. And even when it becomes that, you got to continue to do that because now you become the top, and everybody’s looking at you and you got to stay on top. So every day, that’s the same goal.”
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Daniel Gallen covers Penn State for Lions247 and 247Sports. He can be reached at daniel.gallen@paramount.com. Follow Daniel on X at @danieljtgallen, Instagram at @bydanieljtgallen and Bluesky at @danieljtgallen.bsky.social.
