It is darn near impossible to believe that Penn State’s wide receiver situation is this bad. So bad that it killed the program’s chances for greatness this year.

I’ve only covered PSU since 2006, and this is by far the worst group of wide receivers the program has had in my 18 years. The 2004 group (Gerald Smith, Mark Rubin, etc.) was worse — running back Tony Hunt led that team in receptions with 39 — but Penn State was lousy that year, so there were no real expectations.

This year’s team had huge expectations. The coaches had known for a couple of years that they had Drew Allar and this would be the season to showcase him and the offense, and yet they still couldn’t put together an adequate group of receivers.

Let’s face it, to me, all of the problems on this team begin with the receivers. And ultimately, failing so badly in that area is the biggest reason the offense was so bad that Mike Yurcich had to be fired.

I feel like I’ve beaten this dead horse to a pulp for months now. But if only the Lions had better receivers, I honestly believe we’d be sitting here talking about an 11-1 team at worst, and looking ahead to a potential Big Ten title and College Football Playoff berth.

The trickle-down effect of the bad receiver group is enormous.

Defenses don’t respect the receivers. Not the best defenses anyway, that of Ohio State and Michigan. If you don’t respect the receivers, your defensive game plan gets much, much easier.

You can load up to stop the run. Which overwhelms the offensive line. Which slows down the running backs. And allows you to get more pressure on the quarterback.

KeAndre Lambert-Smith is not a Big Ten No. 1 receiver. He’s a solid possession guy but not a lead guy. Dante Cephas has been a huge disappointment. Trey Wallace has been hurt. And the younger guys have not developed.

There are other problems on offense. Allar is just not very good right now. He can improve, and we cannot label him a bust yet. But he’s nowhere near the kind of QB any of us expected to see, and for him to have only 70 yards passing in the biggest game of his career at home will go down as one of the worst performances ever by a PSU quarterback.

But Allar doesn’t have guys getting open. These receivers cannot get separation against good defenses on most plays. And then on the rare plays they do, Allar either doesn’t see them or throws an errant pass their way.

The offensive line was supposed to be really good. It’s not, because defenses are coming at them with extra defenders in the box.

It would be tough for any offensive coordinator to succeed with this group of receivers. Yurcich’s play calling was very poor, he didn’t get the ball into the hands of Nicholas Singleton or Kaytron Allen to where they can do more.

Maybe the most troubling aspect is this: The receiving situation might not be much better next year.

Ooof. That would be brutal, but it’s possible, unless they can find one or two studs in the transfer portal.

Cory Giger covers Penn State for DK Pittsburgh Sports and hosts “Sports Central” weekdays from 4 to 5 p.m. on 96.1 Hank FM.