Former UCLA Defensive Tackle Keanu Williams Commits To Penn State

The Nittany Lions get on the board with a non-Iowa State transfer as they land former UCLA defensive tackle Keanu Williams following a visit to Happy Valley.

Williams is a 6-foot-5, 320-pound (!) defensive tackle that spent his first two seasons at Oregon before transferring to UCLA in 2023, where Penn State defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn and defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe served in the same roles. Williams had a solid first season with the Bruins, averaging 19 snaps per game and totaling 14 tackles and 0.5 TFLs. Unfortunately for him, Williams suffered a season-ending injury after two games in 2024 and took a medical redshirt season. He bounced back with a healthy, productive 2025, averaging 38 snaps per game and totaling 39 tackles on the year.

Williams game is pretty straight forward: he is a big body that eats up blocks and does the dirty work. He’s not someone that gets after the quarterback or into the backfield, as he only has 1.5 career TFLs. If you’re expecting Jared Odrick or Devon Still, I got bad news. But if you are expecting a Grown Ass Man that can be a true legitimate 1-Tech, then Williams has a good chance of living up to expectations.

Williams won’t be the last defensive tackle Penn State takes in the portal. As a reminder, the Nittany Lions are tasked with replacing Zane Durant, Alonzo Ford, Xavier Gilliam, and Owen Wafle — four of the five most used DTs in 2025. Before Williams’ commitment, here’s where things stood for the position group:

• Ty Blanding (redshirt junior)
• Liam Andrews (redshirt sophomore)
• De’Andre Cook (redshirt sophomore)
• Alijah Carnell (redshirt sophomore, Iowa State transfer)

Blanding carved out a nice role especially as the season went along (he had at least 30 snaps the last 3 games of the season), and De’Andre Cook and Liam Andrews were relatively big recruits (Andrews especially), but this is a group that needs some plug-and-play guys. Williams is certainly that.