Justin King leaves for the NFL

According to Bob Lichtenfels of Scout.com, Penn State junior cornerback Justin King is headed to the NFL.

Penn State junior cornerback Justin King has played his final game for the Nittany Lions. Terry Smith, King's stepfather and the head coach at Gateway High, told FightOnState.com and Scout.com that his son intends to enter the 2008 NFL Draft.

King set two goals for himself when he left Gateway High and according to Smith, King believes he has accomplished both of those goals. "He wanted to get an education and a degree from Penn State, which he did," Smith stated. "He wanted to help turn Penn State around, and he did that, too."

We wish Justin the best and offer heartfelt thanks for choosing the Nittany Lions in a very dark bleak time for the program. You may remember when Justin came to Penn State the Lions were coming off of the worst 5 year stretch in Paterno's storied career. Justin chose Penn State because it's easy to join a team that's on top and become part of something great but it's more challenging to take a team that is down and turn the program around and that's what King did. Congrats.

Looking ahead to 2008 that leaves Penn State remarkable thin in the secondary, if they move Davis back from safety to corner they solve the depth problems at corner but leave the safeties thin. It will be interesting to see what the coaches do. I smell several Blue & White Roundtable questions brewing from this little nugget of news.