Bohls: First peek at Texas' freshmen reveals a potentially loaded Longhorns roster

While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:

1. After one practice, here's what we think we know

A few perceptions and maybe a misperception: Football practice has begun, which means it will suck all the oxygen out of the Austin air. I tweeted Monday that some of the freshmen looked as good and ripped as I’ve seen. Of course, the detractors came out and said they’d heard it all before. Perhaps. The comment wasn’t intended to suggest Texas will run the table and go 15-0. But the talent has been upgraded. Big-time. I could see a dozen contributing and three or so like linebacker Anthony Hill, wide receiver Johntay Cook II and perhaps tailback CJ Baxter starting. … Hill, at 6-foot-3 and 229 pounds, looks like a grown man and somebody who might start from Day 1 and never give up the position. OK, maybe Day 2. But the combination of Jaylan Ford and Hill should strike some fear in Big 12 offenses this fall. … Asked why he played Xavier Worthy the second half of the season, even though Steve Sarkisian revealed the receiver had a broken hand, instead of a healthier backup, Sarkisian said, “I felt like he was the best option for us.” That doesn’t speak well for last year’s group of receivers. ... Sarkisian admits he was trying to protect Worthy. From whom or what, I’m not sure. It sure doesn’t speak well to Texas’ transparency. Now that Sark put it out there, fans and media will be wondering every time a star athlete’s performance falls off if he's hurt. ... Another reason with the growth of legalized gambling in so many states, we'll eventually see mandatory injury reports in college football. … Looking like Cook is being groomed as a punt returner as is Georgia receiver transfer Adonai Mitchell along with Worthy. … Arkansas transfer safety Jalen Catalon has very thick legs and looks very sturdy. Hoping he can stay well. … Have always been impressed by tight end Juan Davis. He sure looks the part. … That Arch Manning fellow. He looks a legit 6-4. … Really surprised to see quarterback Maalik Murphy’s foot injury is still lingering. Big setback for him.

Golden: Moody Center becomes a friendly home

2. Let the madness begin

The basketball postseason has arrived: Vic Schaefer deservedly won Big 12 coach of the year for guiding his team to its first women’s basketball title since 2004 despite an injury-riddled lineup that caused starters to miss 45 games. The latest is shooting guard Sonya Morris, whom Schaefer says probably won’t play in Kansas City at this week’s tournament after already missing seven games. “I don’t think so,” he said. “This is another opportunity to win a championship and an opportunity to continue to get better. If you can navigate a Big 12 18-game schedule, then the Big 12 Tournament, then you can navigate the NCAA Tournament.” Schaefer said he won’t rest his starters because “we have no depth at guard and players want to play anyway. The great ones don’t want to sit.” … Before Texas whipped regular-season men's champion Kansas on Saturday, athletic director Chris Del Conte noted the two consecutive road losses to Baylor and TCU but said he didn’t think the Longhorns “were necessarily limping to the finish. We just got a little cold. That’s because of double round-robin play. There are no hidden secrets. That’s the difficult part. That’s why Big 12 teams could do better in the NCAAs because no one’s seen ❜em.” … He still applauds Rodney Terry’s work: “He’s done an amazing job, an incredible job. There’s a lot of basketball left to be played. This league is tremendous. Let’s not go into the postseason with self-doubt.” … Kudos to the Texas women and the men for its second-place finish to Kansas under some very challenging circumstances. Sarkisian took notice too. “I need to give a shoutout to everything that’s happening in our spring sports right now,” he said. “Man, everybody’s kicking butt. Vic Schaefer’s women's basketball team won the championship. Great win for our men’s basketball team beating Kansas and getting the 2 seed in the Big 12 Tournament. This university is amazing when you talk about just how high of a level everybody competes at, and we’re just trying to hold up our end of the bargain.” He’s right. It is time to hold up the football end and win the last Big 12 championship Texas will play for. No title since 2009. No double-digit regular-season wins since 2009. The last two years, the six teams who played for the league title are champion Kansas State, TCU, champion Baylor and Oklahoma State, champion Oklahoma and Iowa State. It’s unacceptable Texas hasn’t been more competitive.

More: Longhorns throttle Kansas in season finale

3. Beware: it's crazy rumor season

Here we go: Already reports are swirling that Chris Beard is a candidate for the vacant Ole Miss job and maybe even his old position at Texas Tech, all sins forgiven. I’d guess 50% of Red Raider Nation would be OK with his return because he’d restore Tech basketball to a national power immediately. But if Tech chose to go this route, Beard would probably have to stay in Lubbock forever because if he left again, Tech fans would be furious and feel used again. It is surprising to me that Beard, fired from his job as Texas head basketball coach in the first week of January, hasn’t done an interview expressing remorse for any mistakes he made leading to his dismissal.

4. Is eight enough? Not if you’re Chris Del Conte.

Keeping it personal: Del Conte told me Saturday he would vote for the SEC to expand from eight to nine conference football games each season for fairly obvious reasons. “I would prefer nine because we always have a neutral site game (in Dallas against Oklahoma),” Del Conte said. “If we go to nine, we’d be getting four games at home and four on the road every year.” Otherwise Texas would get as few as three home SEC games in alternate years, which doesn’t offer much balance and hurts a little in season-ticket sales. That said, I’d still contend that even three SEC games at Royal-Memorial Stadium including, say, permanent rival Texas A&M or Arkansas as well as even Vanderbilt and a Mississippi State would still be superior to any three home games versus Big 12 opponents. … Del Conte declined to reveal his preference for three permanent league rivals, which is still to be decided sometime in the next three months. “I want to hear all the evidence,” he said. Then he jokingly mentioned Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt might work for an annual basis.

More: Texas explains wideout Xavier Worthy's injury

5. Dell Match Play is dead. Long live Dell Match Play.

The Dell is done: Jordan Uppleger, executive director of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, said the cancellation of the annual tournament at the Austin Country Club after this month’s tournament was the PGA Tour’s choice. “It really had nothing to do with conversations with Dell or the country club. It’s really a PGA Tour decision at what their designated events were going to look like, and a 64-player match-play event didn’t fit the confines of what a designated event would be.” That’s a shame because the unique, one-on-one format is so much fun. I’ve never heard one player grouse about the model and many would like to see more such tournaments. “The match-play format is a fan favorite and something the athletes like. It’s definitely a format we’d consider in the future,” Uppleger said. … I think the Houston Open is a likely landing place because the date two weeks ahead of the Masters is such a prime spot on the schedule. Astros owner Jim Crane has adamantly expressed his desire to have the Houston tournament at Memorial Park, which isn’t on this year’s schedule incidentally, move from where it was played in the fall to the spring.

6. Don't look now, but here comes Texas softball

Mike White’s team is crushing it: After finishing as the national runner-up to Oklahoma at last year’s WCWS, the 10th-ranked Longhorns (17-2-1) have responded with a vengeance this spring. They go on the road Wednesday to play UTA in their first true road game of the year. Leighann Goode already has eight multi-hit games and freshman Viviana Martinez has driven in one run or more in nine of the last 11 games. ”We are dangerous on offense, that's for sure,” White said. “Our top of the order has just been lights out, but we just have to keep our minds in it and stay grounded, because we have tough matchups this weekend against Alabama, Wisconsin and Texas State."

7. 'I thought I was the man. But really I was a boy.'

A Penney for your thoughts: Heard an inspiring message from former Navy Seal/Christian evangelist Eddie Penney as part of the Toolbox ministry series. Penney said in seven deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, that he “saw a lot of evil and inflicted a lot of evil. I blew up anything I wanted, and I took out the bad guys. I thought I was the man. But really I was a boy.” That got reinforced to him when he was divorced. He was awarded custody of his three children, including a 10-month-old boy. “I went to the grocery store, and I asked, ‘What do you guys even eat?’ I was a pathetic little child,” he told 350 men at Austin Country Club last week. “I didn’t even know how to take care of my kids.” He eventually turned to Christ and it changed his whole life. “My picture of God was a weak man with a robe on, petting a lamp. And I was about killing the bad guys and saving the princess.” Penney said he fought addictions of porn, alcohol and drugs and has dedicated his life to fighting Satan and bringing people to God. “I’m the biggest hypocrite in this room, but I’ve learned to humble myself and submit to Him. God never said life would be easy, but he said it’d be worth it.”

8. Where have you gone, Russ Springman?

Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former Longhorns basketball assistant Russ Springman.

9. Steven Spielberg does it again

On the couch: Finally saw “The Fabelmans,” the Oscar-nominated, autobiographical look at famous director Steven Spielberg’s childhood and an examination of his early passion for film, the anti-Semitism he faced in high school and his parents’ eventual divorce. Gave it seven ducks.

The drama's just beginning

Crazy prediction: Aaron Rodgers will torment us and play five more years.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Talented Texas freshmen reveal loaded roster, big contributors