Long after he had broken the 2,000-yard barrier and scored his last touchdown at Beaver Stadium on his last carry, Larry Johnson sat on the bench with his head buried in his hands.

As the clock ran down on Penn State's 61-7 victory against Michigan State, Johnson sat and felt what 21 other young men in Blue and White felt.

However, nothing captured the moment more than Johnson, the epitome of what this senior class has meant to this university, serenely letting his last few seconds as a player at Beaver Stadium tick away.

Patience had been his problem all along, both on and off the field, and Saturday, Johnson proved how well he had learned about the virtue that is hardest to come by but most important for any college kid.

"We always knew what type of back he could be," said junior fullback Sean McHugh. "It just takes time to get there, and that's something we all should realize."

As Johnson was sitting and probably reflecting on the last five years of his life, other seniors were playing for the first time this season.

Guys like Randy Buck, a defensive tackle from Wilkes-Barre, and Shawn Campbell, an offensive lineman from Mount Pocono, ended their Penn State careers without anyone knowing.

They took the field, ran a play or two and trotted off to congratulatory hand shakes and fist bumps from teammates, their days as Penn State football players over without an extra cheer.

Yet they felt the same thing Johnson did thinking about how their lives would change.

Years of practice and meetings and weight lifting in State College were over. The mental pressure of playing big-time college football while trying to accomplish the other things that are asked of college students floated away in front of the frigid faithful who had stayed to witness.

And so, another senior class passed.

"Every senior class is so different," junior linebacker Deryck Toles said. "That's one of the things you are always waiting for: to see what mark a certain group is going to leave. We know what this groups is and now it's time for the younger guys to try to follow with something better. We've learned a lot."

It may be that because of what this class overcame it has left a deeper mark than any before it.

"We owe everything to these seniors," redshirt freshman Michael Robinson said. "Last year, we lacked a good nucleus of senior players that were going to push us through the hard times. This group started to make a change at the end of the Virgnina game last season. You could see it in their faces that they didn't want to feel that way again."

The hurdles were high and there were many of them. There were deaths inside the football family, the freak accident that almost left Adam Taliaferro paralyzed and finally, Joe Paterno's first back-to-back losing seasons.

Like Toles said, every senior class faces a different challenge, but the challenge presented by the 2002 season seemed unique even to a man who has seen a half-century of college football pass.

"You can't play much better than they played all year," Penn State head coach Joe Paterno said.

He said earlier this year that he had never felt so close to a football team before.

The first tears shed Saturday reportedly came from the eyes of defensive tackle Anthony Adams.

"I think his eyes were going when we were getting off the bus," defensive end Michael Haynes said.

Larry Johnson cried as he hugged his brother Tony on the sideline. The eyes of the nastiest back in the land welled and tears ran down through the black lines on his cheeks. The Johnson brothers have been playing together since either of them can remember.

But Larry Johnson was not the most surprising player to let his emotions get the better of him.

"The punter was crying," said offensive tackle Matt Schmitt. "David Royer, the punter, was crying. What is that?"

Other seniors were quiet and reflective.

Junior Richard Gardner watched fellow cornerback Bryan Scott closely.

"He was real quiet starting Friday when were going over to the hotel," Gardner said. "You can tell he is going to miss this program. He was quiet and all, but that showed a lot of emotion just from that."

Safety Shawn Mayer, always the most intense player on the field, felt the finality of the game.

"I just looked around a little bit more," he said. "You realize all the things that you've overlooked before."

The seniors will play together one more time, most likely on Jan. 1, 2003 in Orlando, Fla. at the Capital One Bowl.

In many ways, the first bowl trip in two years will be a reward for the seniors.

Mostly, though, it will be one last chance to play together.

And one last chance to make sure the Penn State program stays on the path they have charted for it.

"At the end of last season," Adams said, "we came together and said that we'd make a change this year -- and we did."