What occurred here last fall in the bowels (and I mean that in the most literal sense) of Beaver Stadium and has been passed off to us as "Penn State football" left me looking for positives in many places. Prominent in my search was news of former Nittany Lions gridiron stars making good for themselves and this program.

So here's the latest from the Alumni To Be Proud of Section, thanks to Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock:

Larry Johnson: Immature. Poor competitor. Pouted all season about lack of playing time. Never busted his tail to prove he should be on the field. Looks like another Penn State failure. Runs soft.

This glowing endorsement came in Whitlock's season-ending report card, on which he bestowed on Johnson, last year's 2,000-yard rusher and Heisman Trophy candidate, the only "F-minus," the lowest grade on the team.There's also the matter of his felony charge for aggravated assault.

Johnson allegedly threatened a former girlfriend from Pennsylvania with a gun and hit her when she visited him.

We are ... Penn State!

The on-the-field stuff hardly seems to matter, despite how horrific it is (20 carries for 85 yards). You'll remember that Johnson didn't do much in his first three seasons here. That's because he was too busy being an immature, poor competitor who pouted the whole time about his lack of playing time.

Oh, and he ran soft.

Then, as a senior, he got his way and made the most of it. The feel-good story that ran in every paper across this state, including The Daily Collegian, told of how Johnson overcame his impatience and learned along the way the value of hard work and just how satisfying it can be to prove everyone wrong and be humble along the way.

And that story turned out to be the type of feel-good baloney responsible for creating both a happy-go-lucky and falsely noble hero culture that dominates sports and renders it so unrealistic to us common folk.

Larry Johnson is a troubled young man. That fact can no longer be denied. Nor should it be separated from the astonishing things he did that left us with such indelible memories of the 2002 season.

If this program is going to hang its hat on producing fine young individuals, then it must make a commitment to that. If Joe Paterno is going to keep his job after a 3-9 season because he is a molder and teacher and has done so much for this university, then he must be held accountable for the men who leave his program.The recent departure of wide receivers coach Kenny Carter brings Penn State's recent problems -- numerous arrests, including that of Larry's brother Tony for allegedly driving under the influence -- into sharp focus. Carter, a graduate of the military academy The Citadel, was a tough coach who believed in discipline.

And following this year, he was looking for any way he could find to get out of this town, out of a position he once called a "dream job.

" It shouldn't surprise anyone that he landed at Vanderbilt, a school that took one of the first major steps toward big-time college athletic reform. The university decided to take away its athletic department's independence -- which is the impetus for an out-of-control arms race that leads to ludicrous spending -- forcing it to operate like any other department of the university.

So now Carter can coach at a school where athletics actually are secondary to academics. Which means he'll coach well-rounded players looking for more than an NFL paycheck, the adulation of thousands and a free pass to do whatever he pleases in this age of Innocent as Long as Proven to Have the Better Lawyer.

Carter will finally get to coach the type of kids everyone told him he'd find at Penn State.