Bruin Bites: Fall Camp Day 4 - Injury News and Bruins in the NFL

With four days of practices down, the Bruins are getting ready to wrap up their first week of fall practices at San Bernardino. At least, that's what the players are telling themselves as they wake up this morning - with tomorrow's double session (8:30am and 7pm) as far from their minds as possible.

On Wednesday, Coach Klemm noted that he is starting to feel good about the depth on the offensive line, though ideally he would like a couple more guys to work with in his unit. On Thursday, we all received a reminder of why a really deep offensive line is important, according to Chris Foster of the LA Times. He reported that Alex Redmond sat out after having left Wednesday's practice due to heat exhaustion and Connor McDermott is resting his surgically repaired shoulder. But the big news from Foster was this:

UCLA tackle Simon Goines will return to Westwood to undergo surgery to remove bone spurs in his ankle. He is expected to miss at least three weeks.

As noted in yesterday's Bruin Bites, Goines has been tabbed as a backup at tackle after two seasons in which he has traded starting spots but saw extended periods in the trainer's room and on the bench last season and this offseason due to injuries. His recovery will likely keep him off the field for at least the season opener at Virginia and maybe a week or two longer as he catches up on the on-field work that he will miss through the end of the month.

In other injury news, Cameron Griffin was again held out of practice due to a shoulder injury suffered on Tuesday, an injury that Coach Mora isn't too optimistic about, according to Jack Wang of the LA Daily News. Wang quotes Coach Mora:

"It doesn’t look like it’s real positive, but we’ll see. Keep our fingers crossed."

Wang went on to mention that Zach Whitley left practice after getting hit in the head.

Coach Mora talked about those injuries and other subjects that have come up this week. JoeBruin posted an article which includes David Woods' video for BRO of Coach Mora's press conference.

So far, it seems that Jordon James and Paul Perkins have separated themselves from the rest of the pack at tailback. Per Jack Wang's practice report, Craig Lee is still working on developing that vision or sense for where a hole is going to open up, while also having some ball control issues to master. Meanwhile, Nathan Starks was on the receiving end of the 'hit of the day' courtesy of fellow freshman Kenny Young.

Chris Foster was the latest to note Devin Lucien's role as mentor to the Bruin wide receivers, having learned from Shaq Evans' example last season.

Speaking of Bruins of seasons past, we are in the opening week of the NFL's exhibition schedule - the Hall of Fame Game was this past Sunday Night, and the first group of scheduled games starting last night. Cassius Marsh had a sack and 4 tackles for the Seahawks last night in their Super Bowl rematch victory in Denver, while Rahim Moore was back on the field in a Broncos uniform for the first time since almost losing his leg last fall.

This year's Bruins will be back on the practice field this afternoon, while our alumni hoping to secure their places on an NFL roster or up the depth chart will be in action later in the weekend.

GO BRUINS!