Reporters' Notebooks

Chris Foster, Los Angeles Times: UCLA starting quarterback Patrick Cowan will miss the 2008 season because of surgery on his left knee. He will have to petition the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility if he hopes to play again. Backup Ben Olson is likely to have surgery on his right foot but is expected to be ready for fall drills.

Detroit Free Press: Lloyd Carr on a Columbus Dispatch report that he helped offensive lineman Justin Boren in his transfer to Ohio State: "That's a lie."

Mickey Furfari, Charleston Daily Mail: Should the NCAA allow teams to play scrimmage games before the start of the season? (We ask: Aren't teams doing that now by dumbing down the nonconference schedules?).

Andrew Neff, Bangor Daily News: Florida State has scheduled a 2009 game against always tough Maine. Thanks to the Business of College Football.

Frank Bodani, York Daily Record: Penn State defensive back Knowledge Timmons said he, along with defensive tackle Chris Baker, linebacker Navorro Bowman and tight end Andrew Quarless, have been reinstated to the team. Team officials said that wasn't the case, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Larry Lage, Associated Press: An attorney for Rich Rodriguez plans to ask an attorney for Larry Aschebrook to have his client retract statements that he made in a sworn affidavit last month.

Dave Hart, Raleigh News & Observer: Rameses XVII, the blue-horned ram who led the North Carolina team onto the field for the past five years, died of complications from a wound he suffered at the horns of his own son.

Wendell Barnhouse, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Urban Meyer on having Florida's spring game televised: "At first I didn't want to [televise the game], but recruiting is such a major player. It's the bloodline of our program, and if they're not here, they are going to be somewhere else, and we want people to see this great campus."

Brett McMurphy, Tampa Tribune: Sophomore tight end/defensive lineman Trent Pupello, who transferred to South Florida from Florida in November, received an NCAA hardship waiver and will be eligible in the fall.