We've been saying all along that the Cougs can ill afford to have injuries in training camp. The first casualty of the season was Jordan Pu'u Robinson, who tore his ACL during the scrimmage on Saturday after getting tangled up in a pile. He will miss the 2010 season and is scheduled to have surgery when the swelling goes down.
To get the obvious question out of the way, no he can't apply for a sixth year at this time. Robinson did redshirt as a freshman, but in order to gain a sixth year an athlete typically needs to miss two years due to injury.
Before we all panic, this isn't a crippling injury for the defense. The loss of Robinson does hurt the depth on the defensive line, an issue we've been worried about since the spring. Robinson was competing for time at defensive end -- and looking strong so far -- but came in as the third DE on the depth chart.
I implore all of you to do your best no-injuries dance for the next few weeks. An injury in a game comes with the territory in football, but an injury in practice -- before the season starts no less -- is much harder to swallow.