Cooper Cousins injury update: Does the Penn State offensive lineman have a long-term injury? Plus a note on AJ Harris

Penn State sophomore offensive lineman Cooper Cousins does not have a long-term injury, interim head coach Terry Smith said on Monday. The guard did not play on offense two weeks ago at UCLA. Then, he was listed as out on the program’s injury report before Northwestern. The exact nature of the Erie, Pa., native’s setback is unclear. But, it clearly is something to do with his left leg. He was out on the field early before the Nittany Lions took on the Wildcats with a large brace that ran from his ankle to above his knee.

“As far as Cooper Cousins, he’s a week to week process, and we’ll get to practice [Tuesday] and kind of figure out where he’s at, and hopefully he’ll be ready,” Smith said.

Cousins did not earn the starting role he was expected to in year two, coming out of preseason camp. Instead, Penn State went with Anthony Donkoh at right guard and Nolan Rucci at right tackle to start the year. Per Pro Football Focus, Cousins took just 67 snaps on offense over the first five games. In addition to that, he took 17 on special teams.

Penn State continues to figure out its best starting offensive line. Donkoh is banged up, too. But, as recently as Oct. 7, head coach James Franklin said the team hoped that Cousins would be part of the rotation moving forward.

“We want to be able to get [Nolan] Rucci a few series out and get Donkoh in there for depth, durability, for all of it,” Franklin said. “But then also, you know, the rotation that we had with TJ [Shanahan] and Cooper [Cousins] as well, just a combination of trying to get more guys on the field, the same seven guys we’ve been talking about.”

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On a different personnel note, Smith said Penn State cornerback AJ Harris did not play on 18 snaps last week becuase he was hurt.

“AJ, unfortunately for him, he was put in a position and got beat on at the touchdown,” Smith said. “And you know, we made a decision at that time to just play some other guys. [Audavion] Collins and our other corner, Elliott Washington. Those guys have rotated all year. And we just felt like we had a better chance to have success with those guys.”