It has been a strange September for Paul Jones. He went from backup quarterback to third string quarterback to second string tight end all in a matter of weeks. Now, Jones’ story has taken another turn as the redshirt sophomore has left the team for personal reasons.

Rumblings of Jones’ departure started last night, and Matt McGloin confirmed on a conference call today that he was absent for Tuesday’s practice. The situation was made official by head coach Bill O’Brien at the start of a portion of Wednesday’s practice that was open to the media.

“Paul Jones has left the team for personal reasons. He will no longer be a part of the Penn State Football team,” said O’Brien.

Jones’ experience as a Nittany Lion has been a weird one. A highly-touted recruit from Sto-Rox High School, Jones had a ton of hype surrounding his enrollment at Penn State back in 2010. After struggling with academics his first two years in the program, Jones was eligible for the fall and was expected to be the immediate backup to McGloin. True freshman Steven Bench passed him on the depth chart, and O’Brien announced after the Virginia game that Jones would take some snaps as a receiver and F tight end.

It was a long time coming, but Jones played his first live snap of college football two weeks ago against Navy, recording one reception that was good for seven yards. A week later, he had one rushing attempt for negative seven yards this past week against Temple.

Jones’ career in blue and white comes to an end without him ever taking a snap at the quarterback position.

Thirty minutes ago, he sent the following tweet from his account (@C1nd3rellaMan):

Paul Jones ‏@C1nd3rellaMan

Just want to say thank you to everyone that has reached out to me offering their support. I really appreciate it.