On the sidelines: Former Roo and TCU QB Ken Seals
Ken Seals was ready to move on from football. Reaching a career low in his junior year and being the backup quarterback at TCU left Seals planning his future outside the sport.
That all changed once Josh Hoover made a career-altering decision that led to Seals becoming one of the most viral collegiate athletes in recent memory and allowing the former Weatherford quarterback to earn his college football ‘one shining moment.’
As Seals enters the next chapter of his life, he looks back at the childhood pictures of himself in Horned Frog gear and thinks, “Kid, if only you knew.”
Arguably the best quarterback to lead the Roos with multiple records that still stand, Seals graduated from Weatherford in 2020 and headed to the SEC with the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Seals couldn’t grow off a promising freshman season, where he completed 64.8% of his passes and neared 2,000 passing yards. By his third season with the program, Seals was third on the depth chart.
“My ego officially died,” said Seals. “I wasn’t the starter or the backup. I wasn’t getting practice reps. It was the first time I thought, ‘I don’t know what I am without football.’”
In 2024, Seals entered the transfer portal and returned to the metroplex by joining the Horned Frogs . That same year, Hoover took over as the face of the program with a career season of 3,949 passing yards and 27 touchdowns.
In the background, Seals learned who he was as a person without football. The young entrepreneur was building connections and enjoyed what he was building off the field. Admittedly, Seals stopped watching film on his own after week eight of the 2025 season.
However, the possibility of one last opportunity arose after the final regular season game for TCU, when Seals saw a distraught Hoover and asked what the future holds for one of the country’s best quarterbacks.
Hoover opened up to his teammate and expressed his desire to enter the transfer portal.
Two weeks before the program’s appearance in the Alamo Bowl versus USC, Hoover called Seals to inform him that he was most likely transferring and opting out of the bowl game.
“It just got real,” said Seals. “Excitement, nerves, all hit me at once.”
Hoover’s decision was not final, until an injury to wide receiver Jordan Dwyer in practice “psyched out” the indecisive quarterback, Seals stated.
Later that night, after a team trip to the movies, Seals received the call from Hoover that he would officially opt out of the bowl game.
Minutes later, Seals entered head coach Sonny Dykes’ office, was named the starter for the Alamo Bowl and started watching film with the soon-to-be playcaller 10 days before the game.
“It went from zero to 100,” Seals said on his preparation.
TCU only had two padded practices before all of its work before the game became walkthroughs.
Despite not receiving much time against a ranked opponent, Seals was upfront about the useless scouting he did on the Trojans.
“Film is somewhat of an overrated aspect of the game,” said Seals.
He furthered his point by describing USC’s tendencies throughout the season of running cover one man and pressing at the line of scrimmage on the outside.
“Turns out, on game day, their defensive coordinator wasn’t the one calling plays. It was their linebacker or defensive line coach,” pointed out Seals. “The defensive tendencies, game plan, that goes out the window.”
Moreover, many Trojans also opted out of the game.
Overall, Seals learned how USC played on the fly during the game. Utilizing an iPad on the sideline for the first time in his career, Seals learned that USC dropped eight into coverage and saw if he wanted to be the hero by forcing throws down the field.
What Seals did instead was check down and take what the defense gave him; however, that didn’t stop TCU’s man under center from taking some shots when the opportunity presented itself.
“There was definitely plays where I told myself, ’Screw it dude, swing for the fences,’”
One example came on his rushing touchdown at the goal line. Before running the play, Seals told himself that it didn’t matter if his running back could walk into the endzone on the option; he was going to keep it and score himself.
In the final game of his collegiate career, after a last-minute opt-out by TCU’s primary option at the position, Seals felt like he had nothing to lose.
He went 29-for-40 for 258 yards, two total touchdowns and an interception in the overtime victory for the Horned Frogs, 30-27. Seals threw the game-winning touchdown to running back Jeremy Payne to walk it off.
Becoming the poster boy of the bowl win, ESPN’s coverage and social media revolved around Seals. A Fort Worth native who lived out his dream to play for the Horned Frogs led the program to a thrilling bowl win.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” expressed Seals weeks after the game. “It felt like a regular game in a lot of ways.”
Once the euphoric feeling wore off, he watched the film and wished he did some things differently. He recalled being thankful that the game was over because he didn’t believe the game should’ve gotten to the point of overtime.
In general, Seals accepts that, “That’s the way it had to happen.”
The response after the game came in large quantities. It took two days for Seals to respond to everybody and remembered seeing 4-and-a-half hours of screen time on iMessage alone from the influx of texts.
The praises that stood out the most to Seals were those from former teammates, coaches and teachers of Roo Nation.
“I was really happy that I was able to play well for them,” said Seals.
Reminiscing on his time at Weatherford, the former Roo mentioned the people who make the place.
“We always had such an incredible home game attendance. You can tell it really meant something to the people of the city. Being able to carry that pride meant a lot.”
Seals went on to say that the experiences of playing under the Friday night lights at Weatherford helped him prepare for moments like the Alamo Bowl.
Three weeks after the viral moment, Seals is in his final semester of school, preparing to earn his master’s degree in business administration. He continues to help his father with his business and wants to leave every door open.
“I’m trying to do everything,” laughed Seals when describing what’s next. “I don’t really know exactly what’s going to happen.”
No need to worry, Seals still sees football as a part of his future plans as well.
“The dream of football is still alive. It got a little juice after the Alamo Bowl and I’m gonna try to use that as much as I can.”
The plan for Seals is to make a United Football League team in the spring and use that film to get invited to NFL minicamps.
Seals called it a balance when describing his pursuit to continue football without damaging his other interests. He doesn’t want to hold on too tight to that dream where it squeezes everything else in life around it.
When asked if he would be content with his playing career if the UFL doesn’t come calling, Seals seemed at peace with the thought.
“If I give it my best and it doesn’t work out, I will be happy. I had a good college career, I got to do and see things that I never thought were possible for me and ended up accomplishing one thing that was pretty cool right at the buzzer.”
