Penn State receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith officially enters NCAA transfer portal
Penn State receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith is officially in the NCAA Transfer Portal, On3’s Pete Nakos reported on Monday. Nakos and Blue-White Illustrated both reported last week that the Norfolk, Va., native would likely enter the mechanics college players use to find a new place to place last week. Lions coach James Franklin all but confirmed that after the Blue-White game. Asked for an update on the senior’s status with the team, the 11th-year leader of the Lions said: “I’m really happy to talk about any of the guys that played in the game today and are in the locker room. Besides that, I don’t have a whole lot.”
If Lambert-Smith wasn’t in the Beaver Stadium locker room, it stood to reason that he would be moving on, of course. And now, he officially is.
Penn State had hoped ‘KLS’ would morph into its No. 1 receiver at this time a year ago. But, following a solid start, he faded last fall. After catching at least six passes or more in six of the team’s first nine games, he caught a total of two over the final four contests to ultimately finish the year with 53 receptions for 673 yards and four touchdowns. Over four seasons with the Lions, Lambert-Smith has 126 receptions for 1,721 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Penn State receivers will continue to be in the spotlight
The Penn State receivers were the focus of many fans’ binoculars during Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage. Second-year position coach Marques Hagans is aiming to advance a group that probably took too much of the blame for the offense’s struggles in 2023 and yet was certainly part of the problem, too. And, he’s working with mostly the same players. Penn State did add former five-star recruit and Pa., native Julian Fleming from Ohio State via the transfer portal earlier this year. During spring practice, he battled with the likes of Lambert-Smith, Harrison “Trey” Wallace III, Liam Clifford, Kaden Saunders, Malick Meiga, Malik McClain, and others for depth chart positioning.
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“I’ve had all the faith in the world in our wide receivers in terms of talent and ability,” Franklin said. “We got to take the next step and I saw them take a step this spring. We’re going to be taking another step this summer. The positive thing is you can really improve defensively and offensively in the passing game over the summer. It’s hard to do that in the run game. I
“I think we’re going to be very specific on the things we’re working on and how we’re training and developing. We have the talent in the room. The reality is we got to take this next step and we got to do it on a consistent basis. And we got to make plays against all the people on our schedule. All those guys are in the locker room for a reason. We have belief in those guys. We believe they’re ready to take the next step.”
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