Texas football S Anthony Cook won’t miss ‘a ton of time’ with injury

The Texas football defense suffered what looked to be a myriad of injuries over the weekend in the tough loss on the road to the No. 11 Oklahoma State Cowboys. While the defense was able to maintain a pretty clean bill of health through the first half of the regular season, the injuries have really started to pile up in the last two weeks, especially in the secondary.

And one of the most significant injuries that the Longhorns suffered on Oct. 22 against Oklahoma State was senior safety Anthony Cook. Texas lost Cook in this game due to a broken arm, which kept him out in the second half for the Longhorns.

This led to some concerns that Texas could be missing Cook for a lengthy period of time immediately following the diagnosis of the injury. But it sounds like the recovery timeline for Cook could be more optimistic than many originally anticipated.

According to a report from Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas on Oct. 24 (paid content), Cook is set to get surgery in the near future on his broken forearm. And he reportedly “won’t miss a ton of time” following this unfortunate arm injury.

Texas football senior S Anthony Cook could return from injury later in the regular season

This IT report mentioned that there is no specific timeline for the return of Cook at this point. But it does sound like there’s a possibility that he could return to play in multiple games for the Longhorns next month to round out the regular season.

In the loss to Oklahoma State, Cook played in just over 50 defensive snaps. Upon his injury, Texas gave some reps at safety to junior Kitan Crawford. But some issues later in the game in pass coverage wound up forcing the staff to pull Crawford for sophomore safety Michael Taaffe.

Moreover, Cook wasn’t the only notable Texas defensive back that was absent in this game at least at one point due to an injury issue. Redshirt sophomore cornerback Ryan Watts also suffered an injury against Oklahoma State that kept him off the field at different times in this game.

Watts was also injured in the win over the Iowa State Cyclones at home on Oct. 15. He’s dealt with what look to be some nagging injury issues in the last couple of weeks.

All in all, it looks like the bye week is coming at a good time for Texas. The secondary is really starting to get banged up, as freshman safety Jaylon Guilbeau also had to be helped off the field at one point in the second half against the Pokes.

Following the tough seven-point loss to Oklahoma State on the road on Oct. 22, Texas is sporting a record of 5-3 (3-2 Big 12). Next up out of the bye week for the Longhorns is a meeting with the Kansas State Wildcats on the road in Manhattan on Nov. 5.