Transfer Wide Receiver Dante Cephas Could Add Deep Threat To Kansas State Passing Attack
For senior wide receiver Dante Cephas, spring football was vital as he continued to grow into the Kansas State football culture.
Cephas transferred to K-State in early January for his final year of college football with something to prove.
After gaining more than 2,000 yards receiving in four seasons at Kent State, Cephas transferred to Penn State for the 2023 season. Much was expected of him but Cephas only caught 22 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns.
Cephas, who is from Pittsburgh, next traveled to a place that had a coach who was familiar with what he can do.
At Kent State, Cephas learned the ways of playing wide receiver in college from Matthew Middleton, who was the wide receiver coach at Kent State.
Middleton begins his second year as wide receiver coach at K-State. Middleton is glad to see Cephas again.
“It is good to see his growth from being a young man to manhood,” Middleton said two months ago in an interview on K-StateOnline. “It has been awesome, too, by how he is going about his business on a daily basis.
“Having him from a freshman to his redshirt sophomore year because of Covid, you got to see a lot of growth from high school into college. He has grown tremendously, which I love having him here.”
Middleton watched Cephas play high school football during the recruiting process.
“I actually took my oldest son, who was in the fifth grade at the time, to watch him,” Middleton said. “He played with passion. How he was a playmaker and seeing him help his team win that first ever state championship game at Penn Hills was really impressive.”
K-State coaching staff have hinted this spring that they may go a little more vertical in their passing game to go along with a powerful running attack. If that happens, Cephas could play a role in that.
In that state championship game, Cephas caught three passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns to earn player of the game.
“He was a great two-way player (in high school),” Middleton said. “He comes from a great home. He is very competitive. He is a football savvy player.”
David Boyce is a contributing writer to K-State On SI. He can be reached at davidboyce95@gmail.com.
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DAVID BOYCE