Paul Jones' Penn State career is over not long after it truly began.
Paul Jones leaves Penn State after seeing action in just two games in three seasons.
The Nittany Lions' redshirt sophomore quarterback/tight end has left the program, coach Bill O'Brien confirmed in a brief statement to reporters prior to Wednesday's practice.
"Paul Jones has left the Penn State football team for personal reasons," O'Brien said. "He will no longer be a part of this football team."
O'Brien did not give any additional reason for Jones' departure.
The 6-foot-3, 258-pound Jones, of McKees Rocks, Pa., redshirted as a freshman in 2010 and missed the 2011 season after being ruled academically ineligible. He spent the spring competing for the top quarterback spot with Matt McGloin and Rob Bolden and entered the season as the No. 2 quarterback.
Not long after, though, he was supplanted at that spot by true freshman Steven Bench. The coaches decided before the Virginia game to move Jones to the "F" tight end position, and he debuted there (his first game action in a Penn State uniform) early in the Navy game, catching one pass for 7 yards.
Jones saw a few snaps in last week's win over Temple, losing 7 yards after taking a handoff in the backfield on his only touch of the day.
Jones had been working with the quarterbacks as well as the tight ends during the last few weeks, and his departure means that Bench is the only scholarship quarterback who will have eligibility for next season. The Nittany Lions have received a commitment from five-star prospect Christian Hackenberg of Fork Union, Va.
Jones is the third four-star quarterback to leave the program (joining Bolden, who went to LSU this summer and Kevin Newsome, who left last August and wound up at Temple) in the past 13 months and the fourth since 2009 (Pat Devlin, who transferred to Delaware in 2009).
