NCAA Endzone

Nebraska senior cornerback Zack Bowman had surgery Thursday morning for a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee and will be sidelined for up to six months.

“We feel very badly for Zack,” said coach Bill Callahan in a news release. “He has worked diligently to rehabilitate his previous injury, and this is a tough setback for him.”

Bowman missed the 2006 season following surgery on his left knee to repair the anterior cruciate ligament, which was torn on the third day of fall practice.

Bowman returned to Nebraska after passing on an opportunity to turn professional. An NFL draft advisory panel projected him as a second-round draft pick this year.

Callahan said he didn’t see Bowman get hurt, but it was his understanding that the senior from Anchorage, Alaska, was injured when his legs got tangled with those of a receiver during a seven-on-seven drill.

Nebraska running back Kenny Wilson, already sitting out spring practice because of injury, broke a leg in a freakish accident and likely will be out for the season, Callahan said Wednesday.

Wilson suffered a broken femur while moving a television on Monday, Callahan said. Wilson has since had surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Wilson, who is from Liberal, Kan., had offseason surgery after having leg pain late last season.

Nebraska, spring football, Bill Callahan

Kevin Ogletree, Virginia’s top wide receiver, suffered a serious knee injury and is expected to miss the 2007 season.

Ogletree tore an anterior cruciate ligament in practice Friday and will require surgery, coach Al Groh said on Wednesday.

Ogletree ranked third in receptions in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season as a sophomore, catching 52 passes for 582 yards and four touchdowns. He played as a true freshman in 2005, so Ogletree can redshirt this season and return in 2008 with two years of eligibility remaining.

With Ogletree out, the Cavaliers’ top returning wide receiver is rising junior Maurice Covington, who had six catches for 45 yards last season.

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Nebraska running back Kenny Wilson broke his leg moving a television and will likely be out for the season.

Cornhuskers coach Bill Callahan said Wednesday that Wilson broke his femur during a freak accident on Monday and has already undergone surgery.

Also, cornerback Zack Bowman, who missed the 2006 season following surgery on his left knee, injured his right knee in a collision Wednesday. The extent of his latest injury wasn’t immediately known, Callahan said.

Wilson was already being held out of spring practice while recovering from a previous leg surgery. He ran for 335 yards and four touchdowns on 75 carries as a junior last season.

Nebraska is facing a shortage at running back.

Cody Glenn has been limited by a nagging foot injury, leaving Marlon Lucky as the only healthy returning I-back. Major Culbert, a converted safety, and newcomer Marcus Mendoza have been playing running back this spring.

Callahan said he hopes Wilson takes a redshirt year and returns to the team in 2008.

Bowman was not supposed to be participating in contact work this spring. He missed last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee the third day of fall practice.

Callahan said he didn’t see Bowman get hurt, but it was his understanding that the senior from Anchorage, Alaska, was injured when his legs got tangled with those of a receiver during a seven-on-seven drill.

Nebraska, Virginia

This year’s football game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will be played on Nov. 24, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Big 12 Conference said Monday.

The game, which will be in Norman, had been scheduled for Oct. 27. The change was requested for television coverage reasons.

It will be the third straight year, and the seventh time in the last nine years, that the Bedlam game will be played on the holiday weekend.

The last two years, the game also was scheduled for earlier in the season before being moved to Thanksgiving weekend.

The Bedlam game will continue in that spot on the schedule for the foreseeable future, as Big 12 schedules released last December have the game set for the holiday weekend through the 2015 season.

In a release, the Irving, Texas-based Big 12 called the date change “a cooperative effort between the two institutions, the conference office and the league’s television partners.” The league said the game would be one of four Big 12 games to be televised that weekend, along with Missouri-Kansas, Texas-Texas A&M and Nebraska-Colorado.

Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said that a request from the league’s television partners — ABC and FSN — was the primary reason the league asked Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to change the date of the game.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said he has favored having an open week just before the Big 12 Championship game in the past, but changed his mind after looking over the team’s performance history.

“We’ve played in five of those games during our eight years here and the only one we didn’t win had an open week before we went to play,” Stoops said. “Of the four we’ve won three went directly from our last regular season game to the championship game. If that’s what works best for us, I’m all for it.”

Oklahoma State has consistently supported playing the Bedlam game on Thanksgiving weekend, while Oklahoma generally has preferred to have an open date, citing a desire to keep the holiday weekend open for athletes and fans and also to have an extra week to prepare if the Sooners competed in the Big 12 Championship game the following week.

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Bedlam Game

Alabama wide receiver Tyrone Prothro is facing a third surgery to repair the leg he broke during the Florida game in 2005.

Coach Nick Saban disclosed the upcoming operation during a news conference Thursday.

“I’m not a doctor and this is a pretty significant injury and a pretty complicated issue medically,” Saban said. “But I think that he will undergo another surgery and try to make a further improvement to enhance his ability to maybe come back in the future.”

Prothro missed all of last season, and was doubtful this season even before the surgery.

Prothro sustained a compound fracture of his left leg while attempting to make a catch on Oct. 1, 2005, and spent a month in the hospital after infection set in.

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Florida State coach Bobby Bowden says he was impressed by quarterback Xavier Lee’s play-making ability after the team’s first scrimmage of the spring Saturday.

Lee finished 6-for-10 with 93 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown pass to Greg Carr. He says he is getting more comfortable in new offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher’s system.

Lee and Drew Weatherford — who has started 23 games in his career — have shared first-team repetitions through the first four spring practices. Fisher says he doesn’t know when he will name a starter.

The Seminole defense played without both starting defensive ends.

Kevin McNeil broke his left foot in a car accident and will miss all of spring practice. Everette Brown watched practice with a strained muscle but is expected to return Wednesday.

Florida State, Alabama, college football

North Carolina football coach Butch Davis is undergoing chemotherapy after a dentist removed a cancerous growth from his mouth.

The 55-year-old coach said he wasn’t even aware he had a growth when he saw his dentist late last month in Cleveland for a routine cleaning. After the growth was removed, a biopsy diagnosed it as non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Subsequent exams found no evidence that the cancer has spread, but Davis said he is undergoing chemotherapy as a precaution. He had his first two-hour session last week, and will have between three and six more at UNC Hospitals at Chapel Hill, at two-week intervals.

Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system and can occur most places in the body. The two main kinds are Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The former Cleveland Browns and University of Miami coach was hired in November. He replaced the fired John Bunting, who had just one winning season in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels finished the 2006 season with a 3-9 record, winning their final two games.

The Tar Heels held a two-hour workout to open spring practice under Davis on Monday and are scheduled to return to practice Wednesday.

After meeting with his team, Davis spoke with a handful of reporters about the diagnosis. He said he didn’t want it to be a distraction for a program that is coming off a 3-9 season and that he asked his players not to discuss his health.

Davis went 51-20 at Miami from 1995-2000, returning to national prominence a program saddled with severe scholarship reductions and a one-year postseason ban because of a lack of institutional control.

He left Miami in 2001 to coach the Cleveland Browns. The Miami team he left won the 2001 national title under Larry Coker and reached the championship game the following season. In the NFL, Davis went 24-35 before resigning in 2004.

North Carolina, Butch Davis, cancer

Two Michigan football players were arraigned Wednesday on assault charges after police say they attacked a fellow student in a residence hall on St. Patrick’s Day.

Carson Butler, of Detroit, and Christian Richards III, of Pacoima, Calif., were charged with one count each of aggravated assault, and assault and battery, campus police spokeswoman Diane Brown said.

The aggravated assault charge is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of one year. The assault and battery charge is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 93 days.

The players, both 19-year-old sophomores, were arraigned in Washtenaw District Court and released on $5,000 personal bonds pending a March 27 pretrial hearing, Brown said.

School spokesman David Ablauf had no immediate comment on the arrests.

Butler, a tight end, started seven games for Michigan last season and caught 19 passes. Coach Lloyd Carr said last week Butler would not be with the team during spring drills, which began Saturday and end April 14.

Richards, a reserve defensive back, had five tackles last year.

A 20-year-old Michigan student told campus police he was repeatedly punched Saturday in an acquaintance’s dorm room, Brown said. The victim told police his attackers already were in the room when he arrived and that he did not know why he was assaulted, Brown said.

Brown said a fourth student in the room was not attacked and did not take part in the alleged assault.

Police were called to the room, and the victim was taken to the University of Michigan Hospital emergency room where he was treated and released, police said.

Michigan, Lloyd Carr

In a chilly South Lawn ceremony, Bush lauded the University of Florida’s football team on Monday for its 2006 championship season. The Gators routed Ohio State 41-14 in January despite being given little chance to win by oddsmakers and millions of college football fans.

“Like you might remember, all the pre-game polls said you couldn’t win,” Bush told the team. “So much for polls.”

Florida became the first school in NCAA history to hold national titles in basketball and football in the same season. These are heady times in Gainesville, Fla.; the basketball team is the midst of defending its title and has already won twice in this month’s NCAA Tournament.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Bush said. “The basketball team, and now the football team. What are you doing down there?”

Under coach Urban Meyer’s game plan, Florida won by using two quarterbacks — senior Chris Leak and freshman Tim Tebow. Leak stood next to Meyer at the ceremony, directly behind the president. Tebow, the hulking underclassman, was a row behind them.

Turning to find them both, Bush said: “That’s what we call teammates, people playing together for the common good.”

Florida played plenty of defense, too. In one memorable play in the championship game, linebacker Earl Everett lost his helmet but kept running and chased down Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith for a tackle.

“I’ve seen that face before,” Bush told a smiling Everett. “So has the whole country. You might remember, Everett lost his headgear. He didn’t lose his head, but he lost his headgear and he went on to make a great tackle in a key moment. That’s called tough defense.”

The players filled up a platform behind Bush, with others lining both staircases under the South Portico.

Bush thanked players for being community volunteers. He went on to praise just about everyone he could, from the coaches to the people who sell the team’s tickets to “those who pick up the towels and make the program run.”

Meyer gave Bush an orange-and-blue Gator jersey, emblazoned with the number 43, marking Bush’s place in the presidential lineage. Leak gave Bush a championship football. In a crowd of hundreds of Florida supporters, someone occasionally shouted, “Go Gators.”

Florida, White House, George Bush

Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner, who has had brain surgery twice in the last 15 months, will skip spring practice for health reasons.

Athletic director Rick Greenspan said in a statement Sunday night Hoeppner had indicated a desire to regain his strength and energy after a rigorous recruiting campaign. Assistant head coach Bill Lynch will be in a charge of the team when it begins practice on Tuesday.

“My faith, my family and the Indiana football program are the most important things in my life,” Hoeppner said. “In order to serve them best and make a full recovery, I need to take some time away to regain my strength and energy.”

It’s the third time in less than two years that Hoeppner has temporarily left the team. He had brain surgery in December 2005 and was limited in recruiting and overseeing the Hoosiers’ offseason activities leading up to spring practice in 2006.

In September, Hoeppner again left the team to have brain surgery for a possible tumor. He was expected to miss two to four weeks, but returned after missing only two games. Hoeppner later said the test results revealed the best possible news, implying that doctors removed scar tissue rather than a tumor.

With Hoeppner back on the sideline, the Hoosiers moved into position to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 1993. But Indiana lost its final three games and failed to qualify, finishing 5-7.

Hoeppner is 9-14 in two seasons with the Hoosiers.

Athletic department spokesman Jeff Keag said Hoeppner has not had any additional surgery since the season ended, but declined to give a detailed update on Hoeppner’s health, citing privacy concerns.

Near the end of the season there was speculation that Hoeppner might step aside because for health reasons. Instead, he signed a two-year contract extension in December.

Lynch also coached the team during Hoeppner’s absence last fall.

Lynch, the former Ball State coach, has a career record of 81-67-3 in 14 seasons as a head coach, including eight with the Cardinals. He joined Hoeppner’s staff in 2005, and lost both games as the interim coach for Indiana last season.

The Hoosiers have scheduled 15 practices, culminating in the annual spring game April 14.

Indiana, Terry Hoeppner, spring practice

Lloyd Eaton, who coached Wyoming’s football team to three straight conference titles in the 1960s, has died. He was 88.

He died Wednesday in Idaho, the school said.

Eaton coached the Cowboys from 1962 through 1970, compiling a record of 57-33-2. His Western Athletic Conference teams went to the Sun Bowl in 1966 and to the Sugar Bowl in 1967.

“He was a tremendous football coach, a tremendous leader,” school spokesman Kevin McKinney said. “In that day and time, he was a disciplinarian, like all coaches were. He was a great defensive mind, that was his background.”

Eaton was coach during the 1969 “Black 14″ episode in which 14 players were kicked off the team for planning to wear black armbands during a game against BYU. The players were protesting the racial policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Paul Roach served six years as offensive coordinator under Eaton and was head coach at Wyoming from 1987-1990.

“He was a very detailed, disciplined type of coach,” Roach said Thursday.

He said Eaton was instrumental in introducing new techniques that helped smaller defensive linemen.

“They became very popular as a result,” Roach said. “I think this became somewhat of a springboard for him to be elevated as a head football coach, and he certainly had an outstanding career as a head football coach.”

Roach recalled Eaton as a tough coach but one who could be sympathetic and able to inspire his players.

“He had all the qualities necessary,” he said.

Wyoming football, Lloyd Eaton

Michigan running back Mike Hart will miss spring practice because of a medical procedure, and wide receiver Adrian Arrington is out for unspecified reasons.

Coach Lloyd Carr said Hart, who finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting last season, had “a minor arthroscopic procedure.

Arrington, tight end Carson Butler and defensive end Eugene Germany will not be with the team during spring drills, which begin Saturday and end April 14.

Arrington was cleared of a misdemeanor domestic violence charge shortly after the season, following a charge stemming from an Oct. 13 incident.

According to a police report, his girlfriend said she picked up Arrington from a bar after she finished work and they got into an argument. Arrington grabbed his girlfriend’s keys and pushed her out of the vehicle and drove off, the report said.

The report said she did not want to press charges and was concerned about Arrington driving only because he had been drinking.

Arrington had 40 catches for 544 yards and eight touchdowns last season, playing in every game. Butler made 19 catches for 166 yards and a score. Germany had three tackles in eight games.

Michigan, spring football, Mike Hart

The University of Illinois swept aside the last vestiges of Chief Illiniwek, voting to retire the mascot’s name, regalia and image.

The school will continue to call its sports teams the Fighting Illini under the resolution. Chancellor Richard Herman is to decide how and when Chief Illiniwek’s name and image will stop being used and licensed to apparel makers and others.

Activists and some American Indians have long complained the chief is demeaning. Backers defend him as an honorable tradition.

The school decided in February to end performances of the chief, leading the NCAA to lift sanctions that had barred Illinois from hosting postseason sports since 2005. The NCAA had deemed Illiniwek — portrayed since 1926 by buckskin-clad students who danced at home football and basketball games and other sports events — an offensive use of American Indian imagery.

Trustee David Dorris offered the only dissent Tuesday among the 10 voting members.

“When you look at Chief Illiniwek and you see hate, shamefulness and embarrassment, perhaps you should sit down and consider where those feelings come from,” he said before the vote.

Board chairman Lawrence Eppley voted for the resolution but said he agreed with Dorris’ assessment that the chief had been a proud tradition for many years.

“Certainly my vote is not intended to dishonor anybody’s memories or to deny the fact that it’s been a great tradition,” Eppley said.

Illinois, mascot, NCAA

Results from an MRI have revealed that Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge will likely have surgery later this month for a torn meniscus.

The Tennessean reported that the star signal-caller believes he injured the knee weight lifting, and has been plagued by swelling for the past week.

There are two types of surgical procedures regarding meniscus damage, and it remains unclear which of them Ainge will need. If the meniscus (cartilage) needs removal he could be back by the end of May or the beginning of June. But if doctors have to repair the torn tissue, he could miss a portion of the Vols’ season. Former UT star receiver Robert Meachum missed his entire freshman season after having his meniscus repaired in 2003.

Ainge, who was held out of practice Thursday, set the school’s single-season record for completion percentage last season at 67 percent, going 233-of-348 with nine interceptions for 2,989 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Sophomore Jonathan Crompton and redshirt freshman Nick Stephens have been receiving the second and third-team quarterback reps behind Ainge this spring. Crompton filled in for Ainge last season in two games when Ainge sprained an ankle.

Tennessee, Erik Ainge, spring football

Heisman Trophy winners Tim Brown and Doug Flutie are among those making their first appearance on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame.

Other first-timers include Northwestern linebacker Pat Fitzgerald, a two-time Bednarik Award winner as national defensive player of the year, UCLA offensive lineman Randy Cross and Penn State running back Curt Warner.

The ballot was mailed this week to the more than 12,000 members of The National Football Foundation. The votes will be tabulated and submitted to the NFF’s Honors Court, which selects the class. Former NCAA president and Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Gene Corrigan heads the 11-member NFF Honors Court.

The Hall of Fame class will be announced May 9 and inducted Dec. 4 at The National Football Foundation’s awards dinner. The members will be enshrined at the Hall in South Bend, Ind., in the summer of 2008.

Brown, a receiver from Notre Dame, won the Heisman in 1987. Flutie won it in 1984 as quarterback for Boston College.

Other notable names among the 75 major-college football players on the ballot include UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman, UNLV quarterback Randall Cunningham, Southern California running back Sam Cunningham and North Carolina linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Taylor and Aikman are already members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Among the eight coaches on this year’s ballot are John Cooper, who won 193 games for Tulsa, Arizona State and Ohio State; Dick MacPherson, who coached at Massachusetts and Syracuse; Darryl Rogers, who had successful stints at Fresno State, San Jose State and Michigan State; and Jim Donnan, who has a 104-40 all-time record after stops at Marshall (1990-95), where he won the Division I-AA national championship in 1992, and Georgia (1996-2000), where he had a 4-0 bowl record.

NCAA football, Hall of Fame, Doug Flutie

South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia, arrested twice in recent weeks, will not participate in the Gamecocks’ upcoming spring practice.

Garcia was arrested Saturday and accused of damaging a professor’s car with a key. Last month, the 19-year-old was arrested and charged with drunkenness and failing to stop for a police officer.

“Stephen Garcia will be suspended from all football team activities through the end of this semester,” Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier said in a statement Tuesday. “He will be expected to go to class and study hall but will not participate in any spring practices or team football meetings.”

Spurrier said he hoped Garcia would make “an all-out effort to get his personal life in line with our other Carolina football players and eventually reach his full potential as a student-athlete.”

On Monday, Garcia issued an apology to the professor, Spurrier, his teammates and fans.

The Gamecocks open spring practice March 20.

South Carolina, Steve Spurrier, NCAA

Illinois football players Jody Ellis and Derrick McPhearson — accused of stealing wallets, cell phones and laptop computers — were kicked off the team Monday just hours after pleading not guilty to felony burglary and theft charges.

“This kind of behavior will not be tolerated. It is not only disrespectful to this football team, but to the University of Illinois, as well,” coach Ron Zook said.

“We will act right and we will obey the law. Period.”

The two wide receivers were arrested Friday night after police found suspected stolen wallets, cell phones, electronic devices and at least six laptop computers inside Ellis’ car, Champaign police Chief R. T. Finney said Monday.

Ellis and McPhearson, both 20, pleaded not guilty to four counts each of residential burglary and two counts each of theft of property and requested jury trials. After hearing the players’ pleas, Champaign County Circuit Court Judge John R. Kennedy set a pretrial hearing for April 10.

Ellis and McPhearson were arrested after allegedly driving away from the scene of a minor accident in Ellis’ 1995 Honda Accord. The accident with another vehicle occurred shortly after 8 p.m. at an intersection near the University of Illinois campus, Finney said. Police pulled over Ellis’ Honda 10 minutes later.

“Shortly thereafter the officers began to find items in the car that didn’t belong to them,” in the car’s interior and in the trunk, Finney said. “There were wallets and IDs belonging to other people.”

Ellis, from the Chicago suburb of Evanston, and McPhearson, from Hyattsville, Md., each posted $2,500 bail and were released from Champaign County Jail Sunday afternoon.

Both played in all 12 Illini games in 2006, their sophomore season, and were expected to compete for playing time next season.

The arrests are the latest in a series of recent legal run-ins for Illini athletes.

Athletic director Ron Guenther said the past few weeks have been difficult for the university’s athletic programs, adding that removing Ellis and McPhearson from the football team was the right thing to do.

Illinois, burglery, theft