Penn State football's Kaveion Keys, Jameial Lyons no longer with program after 'interim suspension'

Penn State LB Kaveion Keys and DE Jameial Lyons are no longer with the football program, BWI’s Greg Pickel reports.

Both Nittany Lions defenders were removed from the online roster on Saturday, and a Penn State spokesperson later confirmed to BWI that both student-athletes are no longer enrolled at the university.

Both were on “interim suspension,” according to the spokesperson, and neither took the field during the Penn State’s opening day of fall camp. The reason for their suspensions are unclear as of this report.

“They are on interim suspension handling a personal matter and we will not have any further comment,” the university said, via On3’s Nick Schultz.

Lyons appeared in eight games last season at Penn State, totaling six tackles during that time, including 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack. As for Keys, he kept a redshirt year last season. He had one tackle in two games of work for Penn State and is set to be another depth piece for Tom Allen’s defense.

Both Keys Lyons were four-star recruits out of the 2023 recruiting class. Ranked less than 10 spots a part, they’ll be forced to find a new college football team to play for now.

Head coach James Franklin will address the media at 12:15 p.m. ET during Penn State’s annual media day where he’ll likely be asked to comment on the matter.

Penn State enters the 2024 season with high expectations once again after a 10-3 record in 2023. The Nittany Lions replaced both coordinators with Allen taking over for Manny Diaz and Andy Kotelnicki replacing Mike Yurcich.

They’ll begin the 2024 season with a matchup against West Virginia in Morgantown. They’ll akso feature matchups against UCLA, USC, Ohio State and Washington in Big Ten Conference play this season.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.

James Franklin admits expectations at Penn State are ‘a blessing and a curse’

When James Franklin took the head coaching job at Penn State in 2014, he understood the expectations that came with that.

“It is a blessing and a curse,” Franklin told On3’s Andy Staples during Big Ten Media Days. “To be able to coach at a place that has really high expectations or standards — I don’t even know that somebody said today over 11 years we’ve averaged nine wins. A lot of programs in the country with die for that, right And I think on top of that, we’ve been so close so many times.

“But again, this is a place that’s got really high expectations and standards. We embrace that. We talk about that with recruits. Every coach we hire knows that, so that comes with the territory. That also comes with 107,000 seat stadium — you don’t fill up 107,000 seat stadium with people that aren’t passionate about what we do. It is a blessing and a curse and we embrace both sides.”

Penn State has rattled off 10 or more wins under Franklin during his 10 years with the program. That includes a 21-5 record over the past two seasons with appearances in both the Peach Bowl and the Rose Bowl.