Bob Flounders of the Patriot-News has just posted on the blog No Cheering Aloud that Austin Scott has been sent home for “unspecified reasons.” Given that Scott has been with the program for four years and was a redshirt this past season, one has to wonder if this is the end of his Nittany Lion career.

Scott came to Happy Valley with great promise and had a solid freshman campaign, but his attitude and punctuality got him in Joe Paterno’s doghouse. With Tony Hunt emerging as a hard working, hard running tailback who could block, Scott was redshirted this year with the expection he would be the #1 in 2007. Given all that has happened, I don’t expect Scott to return.

This is yet another cautionary tale of why I don’t follow recruiting. Scott was a “can’t miss prospect” coming out of high school, yet he probably doesn’t even have 1,000 yards for his career. You just never know how an 18 year old kid is going to react to the collegiate expereince. It is too bad it has worked out this way for him. Thankfully, Hunt was up for the challenges of showing up on time, having a good attitude and possibly most importantly, blocking in the backfield.