Well, it was cold.

But UW’s first practice of spring also was a pretty festive occasion. The fans who turned out seemed to have a good time. There was a bit of a buzz. Overall, it seemed clearly worth doing — for the fans, for the media, for the team.

Every player I talked to liked the idea of performing in front of fans.

And certainly there is real value for the members of the media, who now get to report on what they see, not just what they are told.

For the fans? Well,

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The Huskies are off the practice field after their first spring work under new coach Steve Sarkisian.

Their primary impression afterward was that everything was speeded up. The word spoken most often was “tempo” — everything happening at a quicker tempo.

Jake Locker looked healthy. Daniel Te’o-Nesheim is getting a lot of inside work along the defensive line. Senio Kelemete was not only on the offensive line, but apparently running with the No. 1 unit at guard — for this season: He said the coaches expect him to grow into a tackle by next year.

It’s obvious

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The Huskies are on the field for their first practice of the Steve Sarkisian era.

And they’ve got about 350 fans watching.

Actually, it’s hard to tell. I did a quick head count at straight-up 4 p.m. when the practice was scheduled to begin, and there were about 200. But a lot more folks had wandered in over the next half hour leading up to this blog post.

And speaking of blog posts, among the rules for these newly opened practices is no blogging from the pratice. So, I came back to the media room to file

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The Washington Huskies will open spring football practice at 4 p.m. today, and you’re invited.

Among the many ways first-year coach Steve Sarkisian differs from predecessor Tyrone Willingham is his attitude regarding public practices. Willingham wanted to protect his team from distractions, so most practices were closed to media and fans. Sarkisian figures there are plenty of distractions on game days, so his players might as well prepare in game-like conditions.

"I want our kids used to performing in front of people," he explained Monday. "I want them used to having eyes on them. I want them used

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With the news that Tony Bennett is leaving Washington State for Virginia, comes renewed appreciation for Lorenzo Romar’s professed — and apparently genuine — desire to remain at Washington for the rest of his career.

I asked UW athletic director Scott Woodward today about the value of that.

“It’s great,” he said. “Lorenzo is a heck of a coach and we’re lucky to have him. It’s that time of the year. It will be interesting to watch with three or four really big jobs open right now: Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and Arizona. Those are formidable jobs and

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UW football coach Steve Sarkisian says the Huskies will open spring football practice tomorrow without a depth chart.

Everything is new under Sark, and he wants to send that message that that includes everyone’s place on the team.

Those clean slates will begin taking on information at 4 p.m. Tuesday, when the Huskies open spring drills. Fans are welcome to attend. (Just be sure to pay whatever on-campus parking fees and enter Husky Stadium on the northeast side over by the softbal stadium.)

For now, a few other highlights from Sarkisian’s meeting with the media today:

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In yesterday’s blog post below, we took a look at general expectations for how the UW football and basketball teams might do next season.

Given those baseline expectations, here today are some thoughts about how each team might exceed them, or fall short. Your thoughts once again are welcome. And then I’ll mix both parts together for a story in the Monday paper:

2009 FOOTBALL

Underachieves if: It wasn’t the coaching. If the Huskies’ talent level was anywhere near as low as it appeared last season, then Steve Sarkisian and his new staff are going to

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Some of you may remember that about a year ago at this time I wrote a column for the paper and a blog post here asking which was more likely to make postseason play: the 2008 UW football team or the 2008-09 basketball team.

It seemed a reasonable question at the time, although it looks pretty dumb now as the football team was worse than anyone could have expected (I recall no predictions of an 0-12 season) and the basketball team was better than anyone could have expected (I recall no predictions of a Pac-10 title).

So, fully

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