Tulsa World: Cooper and McCoy hurt

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Cooper and McCoy hurt
Stoops does not think either is 'too serious.'

Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy celebrates OU's win over Baylor with fans after the game. McCoy left the game after injuring his big toe. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World

By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Published: 10/5/2008 2:10 AM
Last Modified: 10/5/2008 2:26 AM

Stoops does not think either is 'too serious.'

WACO, Texas — Gerald McCoy hopped off Baylor's field toward the end of Saturday's first half, never to return. Jon Cooper limped off in the third quarter, returning just long enough to finish the drive.

Here was the literal center of Oklahoma's offense, the figurative one for OU's defense, injured seven days before the tilt with Texas. What were Sooner fans to do?

Exhale, apparently.

"I'm good," said McCoy, the defensive tackle who indicated he injured his big toe.

"I'm all right," Cooper said as he walked stiff-legged after OU's 49-17 victory at Baylor, his left knee wrapped in an Ace bandage.

"Someone fell on his knee, but he's fine," said James Patton, OU offensive line coach James Patton, of Cooper. "He could have gone back in, but we held him out."

The Sooners, who finished with 270-pound freshman Jason Hannan at center, will want Cooper back by Monday's practice. They need his muscle and, given that he makes the calls for his line, his moxie.

McCoy is just as valuable to his defensive line, a player who draws nearly-constant double-teaming to allow trailing linebackers to move in and make easier tackles. Adrian Taylor, Cory Bennett and Cordero Moore, who has subbed for DeMarcus Granger since Granger's injury, are playing well.

But McCoy, as OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables put it recently, "is on his own planet." The Sooners must have him, and Cooper, on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.

"I don't think anything's too serious," coach Bob Stoops said in postgame Saturday. "Hopefully that's how it all checks out."

Guerin Emig 581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer

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