TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN ‑Things are hopping in Seattle. The Seahawks look to be playoff contenders instead of pretenders, the Washington Huskies are undefeated going into Saturday’s critical game in Los Angeles against what is now the pretenders, the USC Trojans. I say pretenders because when Lincoln Riley arrived as head coach from Oklahoma, he brought along Oklahoma Heisman winner Caleb Williams as quarterback and loaded up with talented transfers to the extent the Trojans were expected to be Pac-12 champions and make the football playoffs. But the Trojans have gone from contenders to pretenders because of a defense that can’t stop water. They score a lot of points, but give up just as many points. This year’s Heisman favorite Michael Penix Jr. has had the Huskies rolling until the last two weeks when they scratched bye with narrow wins over Arizona State and Stanford, two teams that will never this year be anything but bottom feeders. Penix may have been injured (ribs) and certainly was sick last week against Stanford. He feels better now so you can expect he will be ready to rock and roll against the Trojans. So will elite receiver Jalan McMillian who has been out with a leg injury since Sept. 16 when the Huskies destroyed Michigan State. He tried to come back from the injury in the Oregon game but left just after a few snaps and tried to come back in the Stanford game, but again left after just a couple snaps. It appears he’s much better now and is ready to perform on the field, which should help the Huskies in what is expected to be a shootout…. Also playing well is the Seattle Seahawks. They are 5-2 as they head to Baltimore to play the dangerous Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson. The Seahawks beefed up their defense in recent days by signing defensive tackle Frank Clark, a former Seahawk, and defensive tackle Leonard Williams on a trade deal with the New York Giants. Those are positive moves by the Seahawks, offsetting they hope is a below par performance from quarterback Geno Smith, who has been turnover prone in the last three games. The Seahawk have managed to overcome Smith’s mistakes but it’s been tough. Baltimore is a different animal and mistakes against them may doom the Hawks. So, we’ll see. … The Seattle Kraken are three points from second place in the NHL Western Division and look to be sharp. They are home for their next two games at Climate Pledge Arena, go on the road for two games and then return home. So, the Kraken have a chance to get cracking…. Seattle’s Mariners have to rebuild trust in what they are doing after a narrow playoff miss after trading one of baseball’s best closers in Paul Sewald to the Diamondbacks. Sewald helped the Diamondbacks make the World Series and very likely would have enabled the Mariners to make the playoffs if he hadn’t been traded. It was a costly mistake to send him packing. It was stupid to give him up when the team was close to making the playoffs… Unless the Washington Huskies men’s basketball team does the improbable and has a very successful season you can expect coach Mike Hopkins to be fired. New athletic director Troy Dannen has had success in his positions AD positions and I would expect him to target Hopkins if things go wrong.