Penn State's Mistake with Kevin Newsome (Now Departed)

When Kevin Newsome signed his letter of intent with Penn State on December 16th, 2008, we wrote this headline: "Alleluia: There Is Life After Darryl Clark", overjoyed that the Nittany Lions had indeed signed the next Terrelle Pryor.

Now, he's off. He's getting a transfer. Nope, we don't know where, but we hope it's a school that will take an ambitious team player that is this kid.

It's funny, because every season that Kevin Newsome donned a Penn State uniform over the last two years, I've hoped that this year he would have played well enough to overtake Moxie McGloin, Ralph Bolden and make it to the top and stop the waft of disappointment every time he picked up the ball.

Yes, it's true. He's an outside threat with his legs. He caused Big Ten teams (a few) problems on loose plays, but really, it was nothing to worry about.

As the "Black Shoe Diaries" so brilliantly points out (and to be fair I hadn't heard a harsh word said about him EITHER despite the frustration he must have been playing warming the bench), he was a valuable lesson in someone willing to give himself us in the interests of the team. It's all rather refreshing.

But there's another lesson to us: Don't expect too much, because some of the kids can't make the jump between high school and big school—and Kevin Newsome was one of them.

And by the way, he only does front flips...