Durant coach Mike Gottman said two key Cougars players have suffered serious knee injuries in the past week.

One player injured was senior quarterback Daniel Coan, who suffered a torn ACL during practice last week and will miss the rest of the season. The worst part about the injury was Gottman had named Coan his new starting quarterback just a day before the injury occurred. Sophomore Je’Twan Smith returned to the starting role following the injury.

The other player injured was senior defensive back Hezekiah Lumpkin. Lumpkin’s knee injury occurred during the Cougars’ win Friday over King, and while it’s not expected to cost him the rest of the season, Gottman said Lumpkin will be sidelined 4-6 weeks.

As for this week, Gottman is hoping the Cougars (2-2) do a much better job on offense. Turnovers have plagued the team in its two losses this season, and Gottman knows the Cougars can’t afford mistakes Friday against Brandon.

“We need to play well. We need to eliminate the turnovers,” Gottman said. “The first game against Plant City, we had no turnovers [and won 25-6]. It’s the reason we won. We got lucky to win last Friday [against King], because we had three turnovers. We were lucky our defense played so well, or we would have got beat.”