[Updated w VIDEO] Spaulding Roundup: UCLA News And Notes From Day 4 Of Spring Practice

It's a travel day for me. So haven't had the time to read through all the stories this am.  From Jon Gold's post it sounds like it was another intense practice in which few skirmishes broke out.  Here is Rick Neuheisel's take on the "festivities":

"(It) is a good thing, now it's just what you do about it. Tempers are going to flare in football. If they don't, you're not playing the right game. It's how to monitor that. You get it to the edge, and this is the perfect place - this is our laboratory for experimenting how far you can take it and still maintain your poise."

I like the sense of chippiness out in Spaulding. Gold also provided the following summary from CRN on Day 4:

"Good day, fun to get out there and be live. There were plays where it looks ragged as can be because we put in some new offensive stuff today that is not quite up to speed. But those are growing pains when you're trying things and experimenting. Hopefully as we build toward Sunday, which will be our first major scrimmage, we'll get a lot of that hammered out and feel better with it."

In the same post Gold reported that Prince "impressed with his deep ball" and Ricky Marvray moved into the first rotation because of an injury to Josh Smith and "had a number of good catches, including back-to-back grabs from Kevin Prince." Apparently Smith "tweaked" his kneed but CRN doesn't "expect it to be serious." More after the jump.

As for Prince he has been giving some pretty mature responses in terms of expectations heading into this season:

Always one of the more popular conversations going into spring (and fall) is the expected win total for the upcoming season. Prince has heard his coach and teammates throw out exact numbers for the Bruins, whose expectations are growing after a three-win improvement from the previous season.

Prince offered, perhaps, a more mature answer.

"That's always the popular question," he said. "Like last season, I'm going to say there's not a specific number that is golden. I heard Rahim (Moore) say it's 10 wins. I don't think you can put a number out there. So many things happen during a season.

"Last year we said let's shoot for a bowl. Near the end of this season we need to be competing for a Pac-10 championship. I think that will make it a successful season for us. But I don't know how many wins it's going to take."

That sounds about right. Although I think the reasonable goal will be to shoot for a winning record in the conference and take it from there.

Lastly, here is the injury report from Day 4 via the OC Register:

Nik Abele missed practice on Tuesday because of what was described as stinger issues. He dealt with the same problem last season.

Wide receiver and future highlight-reel contributor Josh Smith hurt his knee at practice and sat out the second half.

"They're saying PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), hopefully not too serious but it kept him from being in the second half of practice," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. "We'll wait and see what that issue is."

Tight end Joe Fauria (groin), center Kai Maiava (shoulder) and wide receiver Taylor Embree (concussion) are scheduled to return to practice on Thursday.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for a relatively healthy spring rest of the way.

GO BRUINS.

UPDATE (N): Coach Neuheisel's post practice comments are now up on the tube:

Gotta say, I really appreciate the effort on the part of Morgan Center to get these out. GO BRUINS.