It was hard to have pride in the Iowa State football team last year. The team was not winning. Our crowds were not big. And every time we turned around, more athletes were taking their training programs to the inside of the Ames City Jail.

No matter how Dan McCarney’s first football team performs on the field this year, he has already taken many steps to rekindle the Ames community’s faith in the football program.

Calvin Branch, Artis Garris, Tendai Muyengwa and Gabe Toft, four guys who had a knack for getting into trouble with the law and who could have easily been key players in next year’s season are gone. No apologies.

McCarney’s get-tough attitude sends a vital message to the college athlete: you are not indispensable and you are not worth sacrificing the university’s reputation.

Jim Walden was the player’s coach. He stood by his team, through thick and thin, in a time when few others did. This approach made him very popular with his players, but made him look like he was not concerned with the ramifications of his player’s actions.

I ended up editing the majority of the Iowa State Daily’s stories on the various athlete scandals that plagued Walden’s team. By the fourth or fifth story, I knew exactly what Walden’s response to any athlete-related allegations would be:

“I have spoken to [athlete’s first name] and he is aware of the serious nature of the charges against him. I will reserve further comment and action pending the legal resolution of the matter.”

This was a perfectly fair policy to have. Anyone can get arrested and then found not guilty. No one is looking for a witch hunt here. The problem came in that this policy seemed to never prevent further incidents from occurring.

McCarney is cleaning house. Of course, his job is made easier when players like Muyengwa admit to violating team rules, but the point of the matter is that he has shown his players that he places the university above anything else. I know if I were a member of his team, I would be extremely careful to uphold his ideals and not incur his wrath.

The university will reward this policy. Attendance at the spring football scrimmage was far greater than ever. Fans don’t feel betrayed by the athletes anymore.

I felt ashamed that our university gave fat scholarships to those trouble-making men to represent the ideals the university stood for. I respect McCarney’s courage in getting rid of these guys (in Garris’ and Branch’s cases, by revoking scholarships). They were good players, and their absence could mean the difference between winning and losing a game.

The funny thing is, I don’t think they will be missed at all. What we lost in raw talent we will gain in integrity, reputation and pride, three things that have surprising effects on the field.

One final note: already, the most cynical and jaded among us are slobberingly pointing out that McCarney is being hypocritical by being tough on the athletes, since the university turned the other cheek when his domestic abuse scandal broke.

It may be a bit of a double standard, but if McCarney’s past makes him unqualified to enforce the team rules he was hired to enforce, the university should have fired him. It didn’t.

McCarney is doing his job. The rules are being enforced.

ISU football is winning.

Marty Helle is a senior in English and journalism from Lyle, Minnesota. He is the editor in chief of the Daily.