Kenny Carter, the new guy in town, ran into the guy he was replacing in the parking lot.

They were almost switching positions.

Kenny Jackson, the wide receivers coach at Penn State for the last eight years, was heading to Pittsburgh to join the Steelers staff and Carter was arriving to take his spot after a year of coaching the running backs for the Pittsburgh Panthers.

It wasn't the first meeting for the two. Jackson had coached Carter's cousin, Bobby Engram, during his brilliant Penn State career.

But there they stood, the old way and the new way, face-to-face.

"I was glad to see him," Carter says. "But I think there was an understanding that he's going to coach the way he coaches, and I'm going to do it my way."

Carter's way would be much different. The first to realize that was the most spirited of the Nittany Lions, young Tony Johnson.

"He's more like his mother," says his father and Penn State defensive line coach Larry Johnson, Sr. "He's always talking and all that."

Then a freshman who had played in all 12 games the season before, Johnson felt comfortable with the way Jackson ran things.

Spring practice began, and it was clear things would be different. Carter's way was based on what he had experienced and what had gotten him that far -- good old hard work and discipline. Carter is a 1990 graduate of the Citadel, a military school in his home state of South Carolina.

"My reason for going to the Citadel was grounded in a couple of different things," he said. "What it represents has always been intriguing to me. They type of young men they try to produce. They type of concentration they teach you."

Carter made up his mind early to be a football coach and concentrated on that goal throughout his time at the Citadel, where he played inside linebacker.

After graduation, he coached six years at the Citadel and bounced around a few other programs before taking a job as the outside linebackers coach at LSU in 1999.

Way back when he was dating Bonnie, his future wife, he told her his dream was to coach at Penn State. He didn't know he'd make it there just 10 years after graduation.

"As a young coach, to have the opportunity to work with Coach [Joe] Paterno," he said, "is all you can ask for."

But Carter arrived after a miserable season during which the receivers started dropping passes early and never recovered. The position took much of the blame for an anemic offense. Besides that, Jackson had been one of the most popular coaches.

"I came in here with the idea that I was going to implement my own system," Carter said.

So spring practice opened, and things were different. The receivers ran the right routes, or they did pushups. They caught tough passes, or they did pushups. They worked as hard as they could, or they did pushups.

"At first, we clashed heads a little bit," Johnson said. "We sat down one on one and kind of set out a path for the receivers and myself. I just needed to realize some things. Coach Carter's attitude is great, though. He can have a great sense of humor, but there are times when he needs to be serious."

Carter was intent on making them learn his way. And they did.

"I love Tony's attitude," Carter says. "I love that he's a free spirit. It's hard for him to get down about anything. Initially he had a tougher time adjusting to me because he had to realize when it's time to be serious, it's time to be serious. When it's time to play, it's time to play."