As coaching exits go, this was not a bad way for Pete Carroll to leave Southern Cal -- with a share of two national championships and good memories, along with images of him earnestly working with gang members in the midnight hours. Almost all coaches leave, sooner rather than later. Except at Penn State, of course, where the man with the thick eyeglasses and the thick Brooklyn patois keeps going, without major scandal. Penn State football fans should give thanks for Joe Paterno and the way the university does its football business. Not all of them will give thanks, of course, but that is the beast called college football. Every big-time fan wants to be No. 1 every year, by virtue of being the greatest little state in the world -- at least until the penalties drop. (There is virtually no such thing as disgrace in college football, although there are penalties.) Pete Carroll charmed the beast better than almost anybody -- big smile, lots of energy. Now maybe he gets to install a basketball court at the Seahawks' bunker in Seattle, a nice touch that brought him some ridicule in 1994, the one year the Jets allowed him. He showed them. Other coaches have moved on recently under more dire circumstances -- Mike Leach dismissed by Texas Tech for insensitivity toward an annoying player with a concussion, Charlie Weis by Notre Dame for failing, Urban Meyer going on his strange little sabbatical from Florida because of health issues, Bobby Bowden being retired from Florida State and on his way out the door being penalized as many as 14 victories for major infractions. Or John Calipari, the fast-twitch basketball coach, leaving Memphis smoking on his way to Kentucky. A lot of coaches leave just ahead of the posse, their own university's or the NCAA's. Now there may be investigations of USC in recent years that, if fruitful, will lead to penalties, by which time Carroll will already be judged on 97 victories and 19 losses, not the small stuff, like players walking around looking quite rich. Speaking of players, some of the recruits are said to be disillusioned with Carroll's departure. That just means they were going to USC for the wrong reasons, and are upset that they have to work things out with some new coach. For coaches, it's always time to get restless and seek a new challenge when the NCAA comes nosing around. That's the way the game is played. Whether it was played that way by Carroll we will discover down the line. Meantime, there is always Paterno, the last of the lifers. The old Brooklyn Dodger fan turned 83 recently, with two years left on his contract and a crusty determination to keep going beyond that. Ya wanna make something of it? Carroll put in nine years at USC, which is long by the standard of his flighty profession, but Paterno has been head coach in Happy Valley for 44 years, from the regime of Lyndon Baines Johnson. You remember LBJ, don't you? Paterno has won two national titles, and the worst thing that could be said about his operation was that if some of his lads got into a fracas away from the field, he might dismiss the fringe players and administer tough love toward the talent. But academic scandals? Recruiting scandals? Money flying over the long Appalachian ridges toward a prospect? None of that. By total coincidence -- nobody at Penn State has that good timing or sense of humor -- on the day Carroll bade farewell to the troops at USC, Penn State issued a release that its football players had the highest graduation success rate, known as GSR, 85 percent, and the highest federal graduation rate, 89 percent, among teams ranked in this season's final top 25. These figures were in a report released by the NCAA in November. Penn State did not allude to USC, but the same study said USC had rates of 58 and 57 percent. Figures like that do not necessarily have anything to do with coaches, but Penn State has generally been conducting football with integrity for decades. If the Lions lost a game here or there, some fans would mutter that old Joe Pa was getting senile and could no longer recruit. Somebody was recruiting potential students. And Paterno has now won 395 games, lost 129 and tied 3 in his 44 years, and nobody is taking away anything, much less the 14 victories that the NCAA is likely to penalize the beloved Bowden. Carroll had a wonderful run -- plenty of success, plenty of good vibrations. Seattle is a wonderful place. They will love him up there. It was time to move on. That's the way it works in the strange world of college football, where the good ones sometimes move on as fast as the bad ones. 