Starting wide receiver Shawney Kersey, Penn State's most experienced player at the position, has left the team for "personal reasons," the Nittany Lions announced on Twitter.
The redshirt junior started the first two games this season and had six receptions for 44 yards. True freshman Trevor Williams and senior Brandon Moseby-Felder likely will fill the hole left by Kersey.
Kersey is the 12th player to depart the program in the wake of the NCAA sanctions levied against the program in connection with the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. Nine transferred, and Kersey is the third to leave while remaining a student at Penn State.
"It was definitely a surprise to me," quarterback Matt McGloin said Wednesday. "We just have to focus on the people we have now."
Because of the Sandusky scandal, which resulted in a jury convicting the former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator on 45 counts of sexual abuse, players who choose to leave the team while staying at the school have been permitted by the NCAA to remain on scholarship. Players who elected to leave school before the season were granted immediate eligibility elsewhere.
"I don't really know too much about Shawney," cornerback Stephon Morris said Wednesday. "All I know is the train can't stop rolling. Right now we're 0-2; we can't really think about Shawney."