TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – One down, one to do. Jimmy Lake is fired without cause allowing him to pocket $9.9 million over the next three years as long as he doesn’t take another job, then that salary would subtract from the $9.9 million. I thought it was way past time for him to be shoved out. His team just didn’t improve from day one. The offense was terrible from the start and the defense against the run was horrible. Given that Lake was still basically playing with Chris Petersen’s guys, that was unquestionably a downward trend. It was a bad hire from the get-go. If you want to blame athletic director Jen Cohen, go ahead. She did hire Mike Hopkins as basketball coach and that doesn’t look good either. When eight of your players leave your program there has to be something amiss. Then take a look at Hopkins’ current team with seven new arrivals and on a scale of one to10, one being the worse, show me how it compares against UCLA. I saw UCLA beat Villanova in overtime and I compare the Huskies to the Bruins like I would an eighth-grade team against a good junior college squad. They don’t belong in the same conference much less the same country. I think, too, Hopkins did himself no favors by bringing the Syracuse zone to Washington. Seattle is known as hoops heaven with enough talent each year to fill out a good college basketball team. And this talent doesn’t want to play zone. It wants to play man defense and run ‘n and gun. That is the reason most, if not all, that good Seattle talent takes its basketball elsewhere. So Hopkins has a bunch of guys that are cast-off transfer portals or just plain cast-offs. They get a free education and free beat-ups. Hopkins is a real nice guy. But as Leo Durocher, at the time the Brooklyn Dodgers’ manager, said of Hall of Famer Mel Ott when he was with the New York Giants, “Good guys finish last.” The Giants were indeed last at the time. My second point here is that Pete Carroll, the successful coach of the Seattle Seahawks, has fallen behind the football times. A good defensive coach by nature, Carroll eventually figures his defense out as the season progresses. But his imagination offensively is, well, offensive. It’s standard fare – French fries and a hamburger in a fancy steak house. I can’t figure out why he doesn’t join 2021 offensively. It’s like he’s mired in Woody Hayes’ three yards and a cloud of dust. Sure, you need a running attack, but let’s face it the Seahawks don’t have a breakaway running back. They have Chris Carson and thee yards and a cloud of dust. And they don’t really have that as Carson has a sore neck that keeps him sidelined. Rashaad Penny was supposed to be that breakaway back, but Penny is about as worthless as a penny. He can’t stay healthy. So now Carroll whacks away at it with Chris Collins, another guy who runs hard but not far. If you don’t have that great running back threat, why not line up a bunch of wide receivers in trips and play big-man football that is popular these days? Yeah, you got two good receivers in D. K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, but what I have seen the past three games is teams taking them away with great defensive coverage. So why not throw in three receivers plus a tight end for Russell Wilson to throw to? You got to make it tougher for defenses to cover, and that is one way to do it. Then there is the lack of a good offensive line. Why can’t Carroll put one together like Bill Belichick does year after year? C’mon, this isn’t rocket science. Unless Carroll suddenly adapts to the modern football game he should take his chewing gum and hit the road jack. Okay, that is enough for today. Stay safe.
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all of Famf