A Grip on Sports: From coaching news to an entertaining Seahawk game to the bowl matchups, Sunday was way too packed
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Some Sundays are more jelly-packed than others. And taste a bit sweeter. Yesterday was like that.
•••••••
• Where to begin? How about at the beginning? The beginning of the Mike Leach era in Pullman. The year was 2012 and Leach had left the warm embrace of Key West for the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse. And he brought two former Texas Tech players with him.
Eric Morris, known as The Elf when he played for Leach in West Texas, coached the inside receivers. Clay McGuire, not elf-like in any way when he was an H-back for Tech, came along to Pullman that year as well, coaching the offensive line. Though Morris did not last long in Pullman – he left to help Kliff Kingsbury in Lubbock – McGuire was a mainstay around town. Until he too left when his alma mater called. The pair have moved around a lot since then but never forgot their time on the Palouse. Now they are back.
The two have been hired by Jake Dickert to run the offense, with Morris, who most recently was the head coach at Incarnate Word, an FCS playoff participant, as the offensive coordinator and McGuire dealing with the guys up front.
The hires signal a return to the Air Raid roots Leach planted back in 2012, though his coaching tree has changed the offense to some degree. McGuire has received some accolades in Southern California for improving the Trojans’ run blocking as the season wore on. And Morris is more of a Kingsbury disciple in a lot of ways, which should make Jayden de Laura, the Cougars’ version of Kyler Murray, happy.
The hires are another example of Dickert instituting a plan in which he turns the reins of both sides of the ball over to others – he’s reportedly hired Nevada’s Brian Ward as defensive coordinator – and assumes the role of supervisor for both. It’s how most successful head coaches operate, even if it hasn’t been that way in Pullman for a while. It is now.
• We made plans for Sunday afternoon. Mainly because we didn’t think we would miss anything interesting during the Seahawks’ game. Boy were we wrong.
Heck, even if Seattle had lost yesterday – it didn’t, topping San Francisco 30-23 – the game would have gone down as the most entertaining of the season.
Why? How about a 73-yard fake punt for a touchdown on the Hawks’ first possession? Or a goal-line stand to seal it on the 49ers’ last? In between there were turnovers – three by Gerald Everett alone, even if he was only officially saddled with two – and significant touchdowns – Adrian Peterson’s 1-yard TD moved him into a tie for 10th all-time in that category with Jim Brown.
The outcome left Seahawk fans smiling, sure, but for everyone else who happened to turn in, the action made it worthwhile. And that’s not something we’ve said recently about Seattle games.
• Back to Washington State for a minute. The Cougars are heading to the Sun Bowl once again. And they will face the same team they faced the last time they were in El Paso, Miami. At least WSU has figured out its head-coaching situation, something the Hurricanes can’t say.
Reportedly Mario Cristobal is deciding today whether or not to leave a multi-million dollar contract on the table with Oregon to take over his alma mater, earning a multi-million dollar contract for the privilege. If he does, we’ll hear a lot about his move between now and New Year’s Eve. If he doesn’t, there will be talk about how the Hurricanes eviscerated Manny Diaz. He’s the current Miami coach, though, as the school courts Cristobal, he seems to be dangling by a thread.
Either way, the main topic of conversation won’t be football. It will be money. And won’t that be fun?
•••
Gonzaga: The Bulldogs’ loss Saturday night left Theo Lawson with three takeaways. He shares them with us in this story. … Climate Pledge Arena is the home of the Seattle Kraken. And a few of the players took in the Battle in Seattle. Justin Reed spoke with one of them. … Around the WCC, USD defeated Cal Poly but lost two starters to injuries.
WSU: We jumped into both of the main topics above, and linked Colton Clark’s stories, but as is our habit, we link them here as well. You know, just in case you decided to skip my musings and jump to the links. Colton covers the bowl game matchup, which is a rematch of 2015, and the new football hires. … Gardner Minshew stepped into the starting spot Sunday for Philadelphia and did what he does: win a game. That news leads off our roundup of NFL locals. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, Jon Wilner takes a look in the Mercury News at the winners and losers with the bowl selections. … Cincinnati has finally done something other non-Power 5 schools have been trying to do for a decade: crack the college football playoff code. … Oregon is headed to the Alamo Bowl where the Ducks will face Oklahoma. They are underdogs, which seems right considering some of their better players probably won’t play. … By the way, even if Cristobal decides to stay in Eugene, he’s probably lost the support of Phil Knight. And that matters. … Utah is in the Rose Bowl. And Ohio State is the opponent. That seems odd in one respect – it’s the Utes first appearance – but normal in another – the best the Pac-12 has vs. the best the Big Ten has, outside of that pesky loss to Michigan of course. … Oregon State will play right away and the Beavers get a tough Utah State team in the L.A. Bowl. Not the best draw. … Arizona State will play in Las Vegas. That’s the good news. The bad news? The Sun Devils face Wisconsin. … UCLA matches up with No. 18 North Carolina State in the Holiday Bowl. That seems fun. … USC isn’t in a bowl. Lincoln Riley was hired to change that. … California was happy to be the last team to play the Trojans before Riley takes over. … Players just keep leaving Arizona. … In basketball news, Oregon State is off to its worst start ever. The Beavers’ eighth loss in nine games was a blowout in Corvallis, with Arizona rolling 90-65. … Oregon was expected to be good. But it hasn’t been, as Sunday’s overtime loss to visiting Arizona State shows. … Utah got healthy thanks to California’s visit to Salt Lake City. … Colorado hasn’t been able to post a big upset despite a couple chances.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Montana will face James Madison in the FCS quarterfinals.
Seahawks: The 30-23 win keeps the Hawks’ slim playoff hopes alive. But the overall picture is still bleak. … Tyler Lockett not only caught a touchdown pass yesterday, he also inspired his teammates the night before. … Jamal Adams hurt his shoulder again and sat the second half. It might be really bad. … Peterson’s touchdown was helped by a block from a guy he’s never met. … The 49ers have a hard time getting past the Hawks no matter how poorly Seattle plays. … There are always grades.
Kraken: A change in how they play in the third period seems to be helping.
Mariners: What holes do the M’s still have in their roster?
•••
• A trick play? By the Seahawks? I’m glad I wasn’t watching. I’m not sure my heart could have taken the surprise. Until later …