Kaye Cowher died Friday from skin cancer, and I can’t tell you how deeply sad that makes me feel. I remember being in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s as a reporter for The News and Observer and interviewing Cowher about how they met.

Because I had come all the way from Raleigh to see him, he actually came into the press room to talk to me – NFL coaches rarely do that, by the way – and as we talked you could tell the entire press corps was listening.

Kaye and her twin sister Faye played basketball at State, and Cowher was a star linebacker at the time. One night he was at Edward’s Grocery – then a raucous bar on Hillsborough St. – and he met Kaye. He got her number but the next morning he had a problem – he couldn’t remember if he’d met Faye or Kaye.

So he got an idea. He called the number and, fortunately, the roommate answered. He said in a loud voice, “Is Aye there?”

Who, the person on the phone asked.

“You know, the basketball player,” Cowher said.

The roommate yelled out, “Kaye! Phone’s for you!’” and Cowher had his answer.

They raised three children, had incredible success together in the NFL, and returned to Raleigh at the height of his fame to have more family time together. She was one of us, and she was cool.

Kaye Cowher was 54.

Remember Robbie Caldwell? He was the excellent offensive line coach for N.C. State under Dick Sheridan and Mike O’Cain and moved to UNC when O’Cain was fired.

Caldwell took over as interim head coach at Vanderbilt when Bobby Johnson suddenly stepped down recently. It’s his first head coaching job in college football. And Caldwell, with the folksy style was a huge hit with the media this week at the SEC football media event. Here’s a great read from the Huntsville, Ala., paper on the fact that Caldwell got something rare from the media – an ovation.

Big-time college football programs often “buy out” games against smaller schools, paying them to play the game elsewhere. And so the University of Alabama approached Duke about moving their Sept. 18 game from Wallace Wade Stadium to perhaps Charlotte or Atlanta.

Duke’s answer? No chance.

Devils coach David Cutcliffe told Capital Sports he didn’t blame Alabama for trying.

“Why wouldn’t you want a home-game atmosphere for yourself?” Cutcliffe said. “[Athletics director] Kevin White and I never budged. This game belongs in Durham.”

One source told Capital Sports that Alabama offered $2 million to move the game, a figure Cutcliffe didn’t deny. And Duke has sold games in the past, moving home games with Florida State in the 1990s to Orlando and Jacksonville.

Duke has little chance of beating Alabama, so playing it in Charlotte would have netted the school a major chunk of change. But Cutcliffe said he thought selling the game would send a bad signal.

“That’s short-term thinking,” he said. “We’re here to build a program.”

The Buzz had North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall on the radio Thursday morning, and it’s an amusing story about how that came to be. Marshall was at Microspace, which is where The Buzz does its talk shows, for something else and someone from the station saw her and went, “Hey, wait, that’s Elaine Marshall!”

So The Buzz got her into the studio, and had a strong interview. She told The Buzz that she had assigned three investigators to look into whether the state law prohibiting agents from offering inducements outside of NCAA rules had been broken.

Marshall called into The David Glenn Show later, too. As Capital Sports reported Wednesday, Marshall said no agent has been convicted under the law. “You’ve got to have some pretty good stuff” to win a conviction, she said.

Still, this move by the state is long overdue. It’s obvious Marshall is on a tough Senate battle and wants some positive publicity, but the state of North Carolina has real power that the NCAA lacks. The state can subpoena, and jail, violators.

Keep in mind that former Duke star Corey Maggette repeatedly lied about his relationship with Myron Piggie – until the federal prosecutor stepped in.

University of North Carolina football coach Butch Davis sidestepped questions requiring specific information about the ongoing NCAA inquiry into the Tar Heels program.

But Davis was pointed Thursday when discussing how he believes the NCAA should go about stopping illegal activities between agents and eligible student-athletes.

“Having been in college football and in the NFL and having seen this from the standpoint of 12 to 15 years ago,” Davis said. “The process excluded agents from the process until the completion of eligibility. It made it a completely black and white issue.
“I do think, when the NCAA changed the rules to allow agents to visit players 18 months prior to their graduation, it’s made everybody in America’s job significantly tougher.”

Current NCAA rules allow eligible athletes to meet with agents provided the athlete covers his own expenses and that no agreement of representation is established. The NCAA rulebook lists an example scenario where an athlete has dinner with an agent.

“A student-athlete could go to dinner with an agent and no NCAA violations would result if the student-athlete provided his own transportation and paid for his meal,” the book states.

But Davis believes the current situation, where UNC, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina are currently under NCAA investigation pertaining to athletes and agents, is a direct result of this gray area in the rule.

UNC players Marvin Austin and Greg Little are at the heart of the inquiry. Durham native Weslye Saunders, a tight end at South Carolina, has also met with NCAA officials in Columbia, S.C., about his possible involvement with agents.

Speaking Thursday at the Pigskin Preview press conference in Durham that involved coaches from UNC, N.C. State, Duke, East Carolina and N.C. Central, Davis did say the NCAA has given UNC high marks for the way it educates its athletes on the rules.

“The feedback we’ve gotten,” Davis said, “is that we are doing everything that we can to educate our young people about all kinds of things that have to do with intercollegiate athletics.”