Hawks hope Midas touch works with Pryor
A GRIP ON SPORTS
Terrelle Pryor, lined up in the slot receiver position, goes in motion. He receives a handoff from Russell Wilson and it looks as if he's going to pass. But instead he takes off running. Ten yards, 20, 30, 40 and he's run out of bounds at the San Francisco 8. A spike, a few words and ... darn, there's the alarm. Time to go to work. Read on.
• Are the Seahawks dreaming? One thing that you can say about Pryor: Since he's come into the NFL out of Ohio State, he's been a consistent bust as the Raiders' quarterback. Does Pete Carroll and John Schneider have so much hubris they believe they can turn him into a competent NFL quarterback? Ah, no. At least it doesn't seem that way. When the Hawks sent a seventh-round draft pick – the football equivalent of two broken bats and a bag of balls – to Oakland yesterday for the one-time wunderkid, they made it clear they were trading for an athlete. And what an athlete Pryor is. Though his throwing mechanics have never been Jon Gruden approved, his legs always have been. Heck, he gashed the Hawks a few times with his feet in last year's preseason game. And he's got an NFL-record 93-yard touchdown run to his credit, the longest by a quarterback in league history. My guess is Carroll was intrigued by Pryor's talent, thought he could motivate him to try something new and figured the price was Cal Worthington-low, so why not? It's not a gamble because there is nothing lost. And it gives the beat writers something else to chew on throughout the summer.
• Remember yesterday when I said I would wait until today to write about the M's, because then I probably would have something positive to say? After all, Felix Hernandez was home and pitching against the lowly Astros. But I didn't figure in Kyle Seager dropping a ball at third base, leading to four unearned runs and a 7-2 Houston win. The losing streak is at seven, it's not even May yet and the Mariners are threatening to make the rest of the summer irrelevant, baseball-wise. Heck, even Rick Rizz sounded a bit defeated last night and he's a "there-has-to-be-a-pony-in-here-somewhere" type of guy. At least the Hawks are almost ready to begin their offseason workouts.
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• WSU: Jacob Thorpe was a busy man yesterday, even without football practice. The last week of spring football, or Spokane Week as Washington State has dubbed it, began with Bill Moos making news, saying the Pac-12 Seattle games are toast. Fine. Then receiver Gabe Marks tweeted his surgery was successful. Wait, I thought WSU didn't talk about injuries? Oh, only officially. My bad. Jacob covered both those pieces of news on the blog. He also held a live chat and posted a video of five questions with one of my favorite Cougars, Toni Pole. And he also has his morning post with links. ... The Pac-12 looks to return to its pass-happy roots next season. ... Utah has an impressive basketball recruiting class and it just got bigger yesterday. ... New California coach Cuonzo Martin is bringing in his own assistant coaches. Maybe Ernie Kent will hire TV personality Doug Gottlieb's brother Gregg, who was with Mike Montgomery for years.
• Gonzaga: So the scheduling deal with WSU? Bud Withers has his take on it in today's Times. ... Former coach Kelly Graves officially brought two of his Gonzaga assistants on board yesterday at Oregon.
• EWU: The runup to the spring game is a big deal for Eastern as the school has labeled it "Eagle Week." It not only includes football but community outreach as well. Jim Allen covers both, with a story on the special teams and one on coach Beau Baldwin and quarterback Vernon Adams speaking at Rogers High.
• Preps: A Shadle soccer player tried to play through a bum knee, but the injury forced him to the sideline. Jim Allen has more in his weekly notebook.
• Seahawks: So there is the Terrelle Pryor news and Bob Condotta has some thoughts on that. But there was also news yesterday on Sidney Rice's contract and Seattle's roster.
• Mariners: You thought it couldn't get worse than a seven-game losing streak? Think again. James Paxton's arm injury is still bad enough the M's pushed back his return some more. ... OK, when is it time to panic? As we say around here, if not now, when? When they've lost 13 in a row? ... Even a lineup change last night didn't help.
• Sounders: Here's another man's MLS power rankings.
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• Sometimes even explaining a joke doesn't work. As a younger generation would type (with their thumbs, of course), SMH. Until later ...
