Arkansas’ offensive line took a hit today when tackle DeMarcus Love suffered a knee injury in the morning practice and guard Grant Cook went down with a sore knee in the afternoon workout.

Offensive line coach Mike Summers said Cook’s injury isn’t severe and he was actually cleared to rejoin practice at the end of the day. Love’s status is unknown, but it was enough to keep him off the field.

Either way, watching two starters writhing in pain on the ground is something no coach wants to experience in the preseason. But if there is a bright side to the injuries it’s this: Arkansas believes it has more depth up front this season and it got to test some of those second-team guys today.

JUCO transfer Zhamal Thomas filled in for Cook at guard, while redshirt freshman Matt Hall is working in Love’s place at tackle. Summers said those two filled in pretty well considering.

“They did good,” Summers said. “They made mistakes from time to time which you can’t do up front or it shows up really big. I’m encouraged that we’ve got some depth in the offensive line. We can put some guys in there and feel good they can go in and do the job.”

Thomas and Hall are part of a pretty impressive looking group of backup players. In addition, massive freshman tackle Anthony Oden is working on the second team line. So is freshman guard Alvin Bailey, a 17-year old who surprised veterans when he bench pressed 415 pounds before camp.

“All of those young guys are eager to be in there,” Summers said. “They’re trying to learn the technique in the offense, which, at times, doesn’t look good. But they’re running hard and I’m pleased with all of those guys. They’re good football players.”

Of course, Arkansas hopes to see Love and Cook back on the field soon. But there appears to be more options this season for the offensive line if and when someone goes down with an injury.

There’s roughly 45 minutes until kickoff, but we have some injury news we can share.

Defensive end Adrian Davis, offensive tackle Ray Dominguez and offensive guard Grant Cook are all sitting on the bench right now in their jerseys, watching the Razorbacks warm up. Those three, it appears, won’t be available for today’s game. Unless they’re pulling an elaborate trick on Tulsa. Maybe that’s it.

Look for Damario Ambrose to start at defensive end, Grant Freeman to start at tackle and DeMarcus Love to start at guard. In addition, Rashaad Johnson will likely start at free safety in place of Elton Ford, who is out with a neck injury.

We’ll see how much the missing players affect the Razorbacks today.

Arkansas wrapped up another Wednesday practice, so I thought I’d throw a few tidbits on the blog before heading home to watch the presidential debate.

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said there is a chance that nose tackle Ernest Mitchell could play Saturday at Kentucky. Mitchell underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee earlier this month, but the senior could return sooner than expected after practicing the past two days.

Arkansas defensive tackles coach Bobby Allen said Wednesday that Mitchell will hopefully play next week against Ole Miss if he can’t go Saturday in Lexington.

Other than that, there wasn’t much news. Offensive guard DeMarcus Love was working with the first-team offense at the first part of practice, but Petrino said he expects Grant Cook to get the start.

Well, that’s it for now. Time to finish work, so I can catch Round 3 of Obama/McCain.

The pregame Q&A is going to be replaced with the abbreviated pregame blog today.

Let’s just say we’re having a little computer trouble. The pregame Q&A that I just spent 20 minutes working on is now out there floating in cyberspace. So before we get going, here are a couple quick notes:

• One significant lineup change for the Razorbacks today: Defensive end Damario Ambrose will be starting in place of Adrian Davis today. No word on why the change has been made. Davis is here in uniform, though.

• Grant Cook will start his second game at strong guard in place of DeMarcus Love (ankle). At tackle, Ray Dominguez is back in his starting spot after missing last week’s game.

• We don’t know who is starting at quarterback for the Tigers yet. It has been listed as a “game-time decision.” Chris Todd did take the first snaps in warmups, while Kodi Burns was second. We’ll see soon.

We just got done watching the first 20 minutes of practice and there were a couple of noteworthy things:

• Defensive tackle Ernest Mitchell was in uniform and working to rehabilitate his left knee. Mitchell was injured against Texas and underwent surgery last Wednesday. So less than a week later, Mitchell is out there at least beginning the rehabilitation process. That could be good news for the Razorbacks down the road.

• Offensive linemen DeMarcus Love and Ray Dominguez were both out there as well. Neither looked like they were working with the first-team unit, though. Grant Cook (guard) and Grant Freeman (tackle) continued to work with the starters after playing against the Gators. Love went down with an ankle injury in practice last week and Dominguez left the team to be with his sick grandmother. Bobby Petrino said yesterday that he expects Cook to start and said there could be a battle between Freeman and Dominguez.