[Update]: According to Mack Brown on Tuesday, "no one was hurt badly" in the scrimmage, so if Cochran is out for a bit, it sounds like it won't be long. Good news, obviously. --Wescott
Writing the "What to watch for in fall camp" section of this morning's offensive line preview wasn't that difficult -- establish depth while avoiding injuries to the tackles. It appears that that the latter part is already a potential fail coming out of Monday's scrimmage:
Talking to
— Ricky Doyle (@RickyDoyle) August 14, 2012@chipbrownob, sounds like cause for concern with injury to RT Josh Cochran. Horns need him. Wonder if Mack will address today.
As Brown pointed out in his introductory fall press conference when he addressed the David Ash injury scare, Texas SID will respond to any significant injuries, with the Texas head man having the chance to do so himself at 3 pm CST Tuesday.
Since the reported injury happened last night, apparently when Cochran was rolled up on by a teammate ($), the training staff may not know how bad it is at this time. Still, the simple fact that a starting tackle was injured and there are few tackles on the team is cause for concern.
It's not exactly cause for panic. Yet. If Cochran misses a significant length of time, projections of growth for the entire unit have to be downgraded. Depth is that big of a problem there.
Senior tackle and occasional tight end Luke Poehlmann is probably the first in line, just so the 'Horns don't have to move Trey Hopkins back outside after his return to guard. If Cochran is out for a while, whether Poehlmann steps in or Hopkins moves out is probably a reflection of how the coaching staff feels about the latter improving on his performance outside from last year.
Of course, this is all another reason why line coach Stacy Searels spends so much time cross-training players. There's also some small reason for optimism that redshirt freshman tackle Garrett Greenlea was working some with the second-team tackles on Monday night, though perhaps that was simply because Cochran was hurt. After that, it's probably on a guy like Taylor Doyle or true freshman Kennedy Estelle to step up. Problem is, Estelle needs a redshirt.
Really, though, wouldn't it be nice if Paden Kelley, who quit the team in the summer, actually cared about football?
Or maybe Mack Brown will give everyone reason to remove their collective fingers from their position hovering above the panic button. Once again.