SeaTown Sports Mailbag - Mariners traditions, 2025 resolutions, and UW women's hoops

Answering your questions about Seattle sports, from New Year's resolutions to Huskies football and Seahawks offseason moves.

Welcome to the SeaTown Sports mailbag! The new year is almost here, and with that comes fresh questions from the SeaTown Sports community. In this mailbag, we tackle your thoughts on everything from New Year’s resolutions for Seattle’s teams to Mariners traditions and offseason hopes.

Thanks to all who submitted questions. Have a question for our next mailbag? Drop us a comment here, send us a tweet on X @SeaTownKev or @seatownels, or on Instagram @seatownsports_official.

Questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

In your opinion, what should be some team and individual New Year’s Resolutions for Seattle-area college & pro sports teams? -Mr Ed (@mred3315.bsky.social)

Cacabelos: Here are three of the top of my head.

First, I’d like Julio Rodriguez to get off to a hot start in 2025. J-Rod’s 2024 season, and his third in the majors, was the worst of his young career. He slashed a career-low .273/.325/.409 in 2024, and hit a career-low 20 home runs. Much of his bad 2024 can be attributed to a well-documented slump which saw him hitting .244/.294/.324 through July 3rd (86 games). Julio eventually turned it around in August and September, but by that time the Mariners had already fallen out of contention. Getting off to a hot start could help spark Seattle’s offense through the marine-layer months and help them build more than a double-digit division lead (we all know they’d need all the cushion they can get).

Second, wouldn’t it be nice if Seahawks general manager John Schneider considered taking a risk and drafting a quarterback? Since Schneider assumed the GM role in 2010, Seattle has drafted two quarterbacks: Russell Wilson (2012, Round 3) and Alex McGough (2018, Round 7). Geno Smith has two years left on his contract, and there are enough questions on whether he should even be the team’s starter next season. Sam Howell has not inspired any confidence in the short stints he has appeared in games this season. While I understand that there is a risk in not getting a good return on drafting a QB, especially early in the draft, that risk will always exist. If John Schneider doesn’t like the 2025 class of quarterbacks, I’d be even content with him making some trades to guarantee a higher draft pick for 2026. The Geno Smith-era is ending soon, and suffering through a phase of gambling with young quarterbacks may be necessary to get this team to the promised land once again.

Third, the Washington Huskies football team should focus on winning a road conference game next fall. Washington went a putrid 0-5 on the road (and 0-1 on neutral sites/Apple Cup), dropping games to Rutgers, Iowa, Indiana, Penn State, and Oregon. They only looked competitive against Rutgers. In 2025, they have road games against WSU, Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin, and UCLA. Winning at least one road game seems probable. WSU’s roster has been decimated, the Huskies have winnable games against Maryland and UCLA, so maybe two road wins is even in the cards.

Who are some replacement candidates for UW defensive coordinator? -Dom

Cacabelos: Well, it is all but official, that recently fired Purdue head coach Ryan Walters will take up defensive coordinator duties on Montlake once Steve Belichick departs to North Carolina to join his dad’s coaching staff. So, instead of answering your question about replacement candidates, I’ll offer a few thoughts on Walters.

Unfortunately, Walters’ tenure at Purdue can be characterized as a failure. Walters led the team to a disappointing 5-19 record in two seasons. Purdue finished 1-11 this season with an 0-9 conference record. There are two reasons for optimism as Walters gets a fresh start in Seattle.

One, not all coordinators make good head coaches. Husky fans know this all too well after Jimmy Lake — a star defensive coordinator and assistant coach under Chris Petersen — turned out to be a bad head coach, managing a 7-6 record over two seasons, and a historically embarrassing loss to Montana. This is all to say, Walters probably still can be a good defensive coordinator. In 2022, as defensive coordinator at Illinois, Walters led the nation’s best scoring defense (12.3 points per game).

Second, Walters has specific experience in the Big Ten. While I don’t want to overlook his struggles the past two seasons at Purdue, Walters has coached against the Big Ten since 2021 when he was defensive coordinator at Illinois. This experience might be preferred as opposed to Jedd Fisch hiring someone with an NFL or Pac-12/West Coast background.

UW women’s basketball looks to be average at best. What’s the path to them being truly competitive and a tournament team? Coaching changes? Portal? HS recruiting? I saw them smoke Furman but I think they’ll need a real star to compete in conference play. - Justin F.

Elsner: Conference play will reveal how good or average this Husky women’s basketball team is in 2024-25. Thus far, the team is slightly disappointing. With a 10-4 overall record, the Huskies lost to #1 UCLA, #7 LSU, Utah and Montana. Obviously the Montana loss stinks, but the Dawgs were a lay in away from upsetting LSU in a neutral site game. At the same time, the Huskies have no good wins. Their best victory is over North Dakota State who is ranked 131st in RPI. By opening the Big 10 schedule with Northwestern, Illinois and Wisconsin, the Dawgs have an opportunity to flip the script on their season.

With all that said, the reality is that they are a fringe tournament team if they have a good couple months. However, they should absolutely not make a coaching change. The incoming recruiting class includes three top 100 high school recruits, including the 21st best player in Brynn McGaughy out of Central Valley High School. Add this class onto the 2024 class with Devin Coppinger (39th ranked prospect in the country) and the 2023 class with two top 100 players (Sellers and Briggs). The year before, head coach Tina Langley brought in three top 100 players in Hannah Stines, Elle Ladine, and Teagan Brown. The Huskies have the talent to compete, but maybe not this year. Justin is right. They need someone to develop into a go-to scorer and they need the bigs (Daniels, Eke and McDonald) to play well in order to finish in the top half of the Big 10 this year. The first three games will tell us a lot about how they will finish the rest of this season.

What are the best and worst T-Mobile/Safeco fan traditions? - James S.

Elsner: This is a great question. Baseball is unique among professional sports in that there is a lot of time between the action. Even with the pitch clock instituted in 2023, the game is slow enough and there are enough breaks between half innings for plenty of fan fun. With that said, there are not many fan traditions at Safeco Field that come to mind right away. However, there is one clear answer. The King’s Court.

I would argue the King’s Court is the best fan promotion in the history of baseball. Nothing was better than Felix Hernandez walking to the mound while the King’s Court went crazy. My personal favorite King’s Court moment was being there for a “road” game as the M’s hosted the Miami Marlins. Due to a U2 concert scheduled in Miami, Seattle was the road team in their own stadium. We still got to use the King’s Court and Felix got to hit. Also, I made the paper.

The other tradition that comes to mind is after the 7th inning stretch. Anyone over 50 is still pissed that “Louie, Louie” went away, but those are the same people who go to M’s games for the hidden ball trick and the hydro races. Those people are lame. The only thing worse than people who thrive on mid-game antics are the people in The Pen. There is more Axe Body Spray and San Juan Seltzers going around for about a million people each Saturday night in the Pen.

I have three suggestions for the Mariners to create a better atmosphere at T-Mobile.

1. Steal “Randyland” from Tampa Bay. It can be in the same area as the King’s Court and have $10 tickets with one free drink voucher. Shoot, make it two free vouchers. Sell out this area every night. Randy Arozarena will thrive.

2. Keep salmon racing, but add a child. This is a combination of Atlanta’s “The Freeze” race with the Sausage race in Milwaukee. Pick a child every game to race the salmon. If the kid wins, everyone gets free Ivar’s.

3. Name Andres Munoz the closer and give him some kick ass entrance. There is no reason that Edwin Diaz should be having all the fun in New York. Make this happen.

In fairness to the M’s, they have some great promotions this year. I love that you have to stay through the whole home opener to get the magnetic schedule. Secondly, I love the JP Crawford basketball jersey. As an owner of a Giannis Brewers basketball jersey, I am all in.

What’s the best old Mariners commercial? - Kevin N.’

Cacabelos: So many to choose from! One stands the test of time . . . and it’s not even a commercial to buy Mariners tickets. It’s to advertise Eagle Hardware (which was acquired by Lowe’s in 1998):

My other personal favorite is this one featuring the Moose:

I’ll kick the debate to our readers . . . what is your all-time favorite Mariners commercial?

As a Seattle Mariners fan, how should I feel going into this season? Hopeful? Disappointed? - Kyle S.

Cacabelos: Hopeful, of course! I’m an optimist. Remember, the Mariners were 10 games ahead in the AL West before a historic collapse. What are the chances of another historic collapse occurring in 2025? Most early predictions place the Mariners somewhere between the top half of the MLB and the top third. The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers figure to be hurdles in Seattle’s division, but the Mariners are good enough to always be in the Wild Card race, especially with its pitching staff. ESPN Bet has the Mariners at 25-1 odds to win the World Series, 12-1 to win the AL West, and sets the over/under on total wins at 83.5. We know the pitching is good, and the hitting underperformed. If hitting can be average, perhaps we may see another playoff run. Be hopeful!

Should we start discussing moving on from Riq Woolen? - Logan

Elsner: This is a silly question. Yes, I know that Riq Woolen frustrates a good amount of Seahawk fans. Yes, social media was full of Riq clips showing a lack of effort. But what is your plan for replacing him? Josh Jobe? The guy who is the 178th ranked corner according to Pro Football Focus. No thank you. Woolen is slated to make about a $1 million next year. You are not finding a corner as good as Woolen for that money.