40 Acres Sports

Tell your family you love them and you’ll see them in January; Texas Longhorns football season is finally here. [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and the rest of his Longhorn teammates took to the practice field early this morning to officially kickoff the 2009 season.

The team split into to two groups allowing the coaches more time with the younger players only in the afternoon. Coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] is a big fan of the split practices, “It was fun to watch the young guys live a dream of playing at Texas in their first practice tonight. I love the split practices. Everyone gets more reps and we’re only out there for an hour an 15 min. Got a great look at young ones tonight.” The team will do another split practice Monday before coming together as a full squad.

Check out photos and more links from the Horns’ first day of practice:

• Horns start preseason prep
• Muschamp revving up for Year 2
• Photos of move-in day
• Photos of first practice

Colt talks to ESPN about returning for his senior season and the upcoming 2009 season:

11. Taylor Potts will break every collegiate record known to man, afterwards go undrafted in the NFL, and then end up working at a car dealership.

The first official college football poll of the 2009 season is out and the Longhorns are sitting at a great position debuting at number 2. They sit between the reigning champs #1 Florida Gators and the hated #3 Oklahoma Sooners in the top 5. This preseason spot puts a lot of expectations on the team but also leaves it where an undefeated season (even with a weak non-conference schedule) will guarantee the Horns a shot at the national championship.

Coaches’ preseason poll top 5

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. USC
5. Alabama

View the full top 25 preseason rankings.

The Sporting News’ 50 greatest coaches of all-time released recently caused a lot of conversation on sports talk radio. They polled 118 ex-players, coaches, and other experts and pegged [tag]UCLA[/tag] great John Wooden as the all-time greatest coach.

Overall it’s a great list, but there’s definitely some names left off and some order problems (Don Shula number 5?) that have people talking. Austin American-Statesman writer Kirk Bohls thinks Texas legend Darrell Royal deserved to be on the list:

But Darrell K. Royal absolutely must be included.

Without question, he has become the most overlooked great coach in the history of the game. He won three national championships, and I don’t want to hear cracks about his UPI title before the Cotton Bowl loss to Notre Dame in January 1971 because he won it under the rules of the day. Think split national titles, LSU and USC.

“No question, Darrell should be on the list,” said former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum, one of Sporting News’ 118 voters. “It takes away from the credibility of the list. If Darrell Royal is not on there, it’d be a suspect list, and I’m on the panel.”

What do you think? Is Royal one of the greatest coaches of all time?

Want to see one of the biggest games on the schedule this season for basketball and check out the new Jerry World (Cowboys Stadium) in Arlington? Well now is your chance to jump on the ticket pre-sale for the December 19th match-up between Texas and North Carolina.

Tickets go on sale to the general public this Saturday, August 8th, so you better get these while you can. Floor seating is still available but will cost you $250 per ticket, plus the usual Ticketmaster fees.

Buy tickets (password = hoops)

ESPN breaks down the schedules of the top Big 12 teams and calls the October matchup between the Sooners and Longhorns possibly the biggest game in college football history. Watch below:

Check out a great, personal video interview with Texas basketball signee [tag]Jordan Hamilton[/tag] as he packs his bags on his last day in Los Angeles before heading to Austin for summer school:

Thanks to mgrads for the link.

College Football News has released their annual list of the players they think will contribute this season as redshirt freshmen. No Longhorns make the top of their list but offensive lineman [tag]Mark Buchanan[/tag] and defensive lineman [tag]Dravannti Johnson[/tag] both garnered an honorable mention nod. Texas fans are hoping that another redshirt freshman, tight end [tag]DJ Grant[/tag] has a breakout season and fills one of the Horns’ biggest offensive holes.

Check out CFN’s All-Americans…

• CFN Redshirt All-America Offense
• CFN Redshirt All-America Defense

Longhorn multisport athlete [tag]Destinee Hooker[/tag] has been honored as the female representative for the 2008-09 Big 12 Athletes of the Year. From the official Big 12 press release:

Hooker excelled in volleyball as well as indoor and outdoor track and field during her junior season as a Longhorn, leading all three programs to top five NCAA Championship finishes. She was a Honda Award finalist for volleyball, named to the AVCA All-America First Team and the All-Big 12 First Team. The outside hitter helped lead UT to the NCAA Championship semifinals where she was named to the All-Tournament Team after earning all-tournament honors the previous week at the NCAA Austin Regional.

Hooker was the 2009 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor high jump champion, the first athlete since 2004 to capture both titles in the same year. She also won both events at the Big 12 Indoor and Outdoor Championships in addition to the NCAA Midwest Regional. The San Antonio, Texas, native was an indoor and outdoor All-America as well as USTFCCCA Division I Indoor Female Field Athlete of the Year.

Congrats Destinee!