Just when you might have thought, or at least hoped, that it was safe to come out of the training room, yet another Beaver has managed to bang themself up. Freshman WR Brandon Cooks has established himself in camp not only as a newcomer that could play this fall, but with James Rodgers being carefully managed as he comes back from his knee injury, Cooks may have earned himself a regular place in the rotation at flanker.
A strong fall camp has seen Cooks move ahead of Darrell Catchings on the depth chart, and impress the Oregonian's John Hunt.
But tonight, after catching a deep pass in the end zone, Cooks came down hard on his left ankle. After receiving initial treatment, Cooks couldn't put weight on his ankle, officially deemed as "sprained".
The exact severity of this kind of injury never becomes clear for a while, but it makes his participation in Thursday's full speed scrimmage highly improbable. And if anything should happen to Catchings, who already is nursing a sore knee, freshman Tyrequek Zimmerman's move from receiver to safety could become one of the shortest lived position moves in Oregon St. history.
Speaking of sprains and strains, senior DT Kevin Frahm's MRI to determine the severity of his strained knee that was scheduled for this afternoon didn't happen, and has been re-scheduled for tomorrow morning.Delays such as this are usually due to swelling that hasn't gone down sufficiently for best results from the imaging, and that's probably not an indication of anything minimizing about the injury.
It will be interesting to see how head coach Mike Riley decides to manage the scrimmage Thursday at 2 PM in light of the mounting number of minor and major dings piling up for the Beavers. At the same time, a number of key players have seen limited or no major contact in the first week and a half of fall practice. And with the season opener against Sacramento St., who is ranked 24th. in the FCS pre-season poll, just over 2 weeks away, it would be good to get those initial hits in.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com