Midnite Madness and Another Alamo Bowl, Another Fairytale Ending

Are you kidding?

How could any Horned Frog ever forget the Alamo? Much less San Antonio, the Alamodome, or the Alamo Bowl?

In fact, after TCU’s thrilling, walk-off 30-27 overtime win over 16th-ranked and favored USC on Tuesday, December 30, in TCU’s third-ever Alamo Bowl appearance, TCU Athletics Director Mike Buddie should be conferring with Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark and Alamo Bowl executives about making TCU a yearly participant in the bowl, except, of course, in those years when TCU is in the College Football Playoffs.

@KenSealsQB's last throw of his career won the Alamo Bowl for his childhood team.

You couldn't write a better script if you tried. Congrats #TCU, and congratulations to the Seals family. 💜

This is why bowl games matter, folks.@ValeroAlamoBowl | @Killer_Frogs | @RSealsTX pic.twitter.com/znzxQuAyRd
— Ian Napetian (@ian_napetian) December 31, 2025

After all, Horned Frogs magic obviously exists in the Alamo City.

“First, thank you to the guys. It’s been an honor and a privilege of my life to coach these guys. I couldn’t be prouder. I was so blessed to be able to go to work and be around these guys” said TCU head football coach Sonny Dykes after the game. “This (bowl win) is important for this university and most importantly these young men, and it matters. They treated it that way, and that's why they came out on the winning edge. This was a great win for TCU, and I think it is something we’ll always remember.”

With the win, TCU improved to 9-4 overall in 2025. The Frogs were 5-4 in the Big 12. It is the second straight 9-4 season for the Horned Frogs, who now have won 36 games over the four-year tenure of Dykes.

The win marked TCU's second-ranked victory of the season. The Frogs defeated No.24 Houston 17-14 on November 22. Prior to the win over the Cougars, the Horned Frogs had not defeated a ranked opponent since the 2022 College Football Playoff at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, when they defeated No. 2 Michigan 51-45 on December 31.

TCU went to overtime for the first time since the 31-28 Big 12 Championship Game loss against No. 10 Kansas State on December 3, 2022, in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

This was the Horned Frogs' first overtime victory since October 15, 2022, against No. 8 Oklahoma State, when TCU defeated the Cowboys 43-40 in double overtime in Fort Worth, Texas.

With the loss, USC fell to 9-4 overall. The Trojans were 7-2 in the Big 10.

“I want to congratulate TCU, said USC head coach Lincoln Riley. “It was a hell of a bowl game. Obviously, our guys are really disappointed. This team wasn’t the team we had during the season, and won’t be the team we have next year. So, they had this one game together. They battled like crazy. They really wanted to win this game.”

TCU has won seven of its last eight bowl games and is 3-0 in bowl games under Dykes (not counting the 2023 national championship game).

TCU is 3-0 in Alamo Bowl games, and every victory has been dramatic, and that is an understatement.

This Isn't The First Time TCU Has Done This Here

In the Frogs’ first Alamo Bowl, on December 28, 2017, No. 13 TCU defeated No. 15 Stanford 39-37.

A 33-yard field goal by TCU's Cole Bunce, with 3:07 remaining in the game, proved to be the game-winner. An interception by TCU's Innis Gaines thwarted a final drive by the Cardinal with 2:01 to go in the game.

This Is What 'Next Man Up' Actually Looks Like

In the Alamo Bowl, played on January 2, 2016, No. 11 TCU defeated No. 15 Oregon 47-41.

Oregon led 31-0 at halftime, causing many TCU fans to leave the Alamodome to drink away their sorrows in the bars and restaurants along the San Antonio Riverwalk.

In the final two quarters of the game, TCU quarterback Bram Kohlhausen, who was making his first and only career start, led an improbable comeback by the Horned Frogs, accounting for four second-half touchdowns, including the deciding touchdown in triple overtime. His legendary performance earned him the game's Offensive Most Valuable Player award.

Unfortunately, just over seven years later, Kohlhausen’s life took a dramatic turn. He fell 75 feet from a helicopter during a hog hunting trip on May 6, 2023, at a friend’s ranch in San Antonio. The fall crushed his pelvis and feet and damaged every internal organ except for his heart. He was in a coma for a month and a half. Both of his legs had to be amputated up to the mid-calf area.

One more day to try to get @TCUFootball @TCU_Athletics @TCU to retweet “Remember the Alamo Bowl” while it’s at peak relevance. pic.twitter.com/FFQdVMN0Gj
— Clint Foster (@Clint_Foster55) December 29, 2025

Through perseverance and with the aid of prosthetic legs, Kohlhausen regained the ability to walk.

Only four months after his accident, he was a TCU honorary captain for TCU’s 2023 season-opener against Colorado.

He was also a TCU honorary captain for this Alamo Bowl, just days short of being nine years since his heroics lifted TCU to its stirring victory over Oregon.

Once Kohlhausen joined TCU’s regular captains and walked onto the Alamodome’s

artificial turf with the aid of his prosthetic legs, it didn’t matter whether the Horned

Frogs won or lost the football game. Kohlhausen, TCU, and its fans already were

winners.

This Is How Names Become Part of the Program

Nonetheless, just for good measure, no less than two more TCU Alamo Bowl legends, Ken Seals and Jeremy Payne, emerged from the Horned Frogs’ titillating and improbable victory over USC, whic was played in front of an announced crowd of 54,751 and broadcast nationally by ESPN.

With TCU starting quarterback Josh Hoover intending to enter the transfer portal and choosing not to play in the bowl game, Seals, a sixth-year senior backup quarterback, led the Frogs’ offense against the Trojans.

TCU's Quarterback Room Keeps Answering the Call

The game was Seals’ career finale and his first start as a Horned Frog since transferring from Vanderbilt to TCU prior to the 2024 season. He had dreamed of playing collegiate football since he was a young boy, and then while playing football in high school in Azle and Weatherford, Texas.

Seals had last started a game on November 11, 2023, when he led Vanderbilt against South Carolina.

Adding to the drama was the fact that TCU’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, Kendal Briles, had left the team earlier to become offensive coordinator at South Carolina. So, during the game, Seals was operating without an experienced quarterbacks coach and with TCU tight ends coach Mitch Kirsch calling plays for the first time in his career.

Seals responded admirably and heroically. He completed 29 of 40 passes for 258 yards. He threw one touchdown pass and one interception. He also had a two-yard rushing touchdown late in the second quarter. He was sacked three times.

Seals cemented his legacy when he led a 13-play drive that ended with TCU tying the game (24-24) with a field goal as time expired in regulation, and when on TCU’s possession in overtime, he checked down on a third-and-20 play and flipped a short pass to Payne, a sophomore running back who tight roped the sideline and eluded three would-be USC tacklers on a 35-yard sprint into the end zone for the game-deciding touchdown. The touchdown was the first walk-off score for the Horned Frogs since a walk-off field goal that defeated Baylor 29-28 in Waco, Texas, on November 19, 2022.

The Team Rallied Around Seals

As Payne crossed into the end zone, Seals dropped to the playing surface on his hands and knees and buried his face in the playing surface. Oh, the thoughts that must have been going through his mind at that moment.

Jeremy Payne to the end zone for the WIN! pic.twitter.com/NVgXeK02yV
— TCU Football (@TCUFootball) December 31, 2025

Seals was named the game’s Offensive Most Valuable Player.

Payne had six catches for 50 yards and the touchdown. He rushed 13 times for 73 yards and a touchdown. His rushing touchdown came on a five-yard run, which capped an 11-play, 75-yard TCU drive that brought TCU to within three points of the Trojans at 24-21and came immediately prior to the Frogs’ game-tying drive.

“Ken got his time, his chance. He was ready. He made the most of it,” said Dykes on the field after the game, before he embraced Seals and wide receiver Eric McAlister. “The only way you can go out and do what he (Ken) did is you have to prepare yourself every single day for two years, and you have to be incredibly unselfish in order to do that, and he did it.”

“I'm not processing it. It’s like a movie,” said Seals after the game. “This has just been an unbelievable experience. To finish it in this fashion is more than any guy could dream.”

After Kholhausen’s Alamo Bowl heroics, he worked with former Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports columnist Jim Reeves on a book, “Remember the Alamo Bowl: Bram Kohlhausen’s Epic TCU Comeback.”

There may now be a book in Seals’ future.

Amidst the hoopla for Seals and Payne, let’s not forget sophomore kicker Kyle Lemmermann, who, because of an injury, had not kicked in a game since early in the season. Against USC, he kicked three extra points and the game-tying 27-yard field goal.

There is also McAlister and safety Bud Clark, who not only impacted the game through their play on the field, but also by their leadership off the field.

The duo rallied teammates after Josh Hoover announced that he was opting out of playing in the bowl game because he cared more about his financial future than he did about ending the season alongside his teammates in the Alamo Bowl.

As seniors who will be leaving the TCU football program, McAlister and Clark could have followed Hoover’s lead and opted out of playing in the bowl game, and so could have other seniors on the team, as well as any other players who might be thinking about entering the transfer portal when it opens on January 2.

Instead, McAlister, a first-team All-Big 12 selection and a third-team All-American, and Clark announced that they would support Seals by playing in the Alamo Bowl game. They challenged their teammates to join them in displaying the true character of this Horned Frogs team.

Their leadership overshadowed Hoover’s defection and helped the team stay together. The Frogs suffered no other pre-bowl distractions and played one of their most inspired games of the season to overcome the favored Trojans, who had several of their starters opt out of the game. USC also had lost their defensive coordinator, D’Anton Lynn, to Penn State a day before the bowl game.

"We had 13 bowl practices, I believe, and never one time did anybody dog it,” said Dykes. “We had some adversity. Your starting quarterback says he's not going to play in a game. That's adversity. Everybody stepped right up. Everybody said, ‘OK, we got the guy in the building that can do this in Ken, and you have to believe it.’"

Even though Hoover bailed on the TCU football program and its fans, he has to be thanked, because if he hadn’t parted ways with TCU and Funkytown, this Almo Bowl may not have had its fairytale ending.

Offensively, TCU piled up 375 yards against USC: 258 yards passing and 117 rushing yards. The Frogs converted four-of-four red-zone opportunities, eight-of-15 third downs, and their only fourth-down opportunity.

TCU scored in its 420th consecutive game, the second-longest streak in NCAA history,
trailing only Florida (472 games).

Besides Seals’ and Payne’s rushing touchdowns, TCU true freshman running back Jon Denman opened TCU’s scoring on a five-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. He had 31 yards on six carries. His touchdown was the first rushing touchdown by a TCU freshman in a bowl game since true freshman quarterback Andy Dalton had a rushing touchdown in the 2007 Texas Bowl.

McAlister led nine TCU players who caught passes against USC. McAlister had eight receptions for 69 yards. Junior receiver Major Everhart had four receptions for 38 yards. Senior wide receiver Joseph Manjack IV caught three passes for 28 yards. True freshman wide receiver Terry Shelton had two receptions for 27 yards.

Defensively, TCU held USC to 392 yards. Trojans redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava completed only 18-of-30 passes for 280 yards and one touchdown. He had two passes intercepted.

Coming into the game, USC’s offense had been averaging: 36.5 points per game; 471.6 total offensive yards per game; 297.3 passing yards per game; and 174.3 rushing yards per game.

True freshman wide receiver Tanook Hines was USC’s most prolific offensive player. He caught six passes for 163 yards. Redshirt senior wide receiver Jaden Richardson caught Maiava’s one touchdown pass. It was a 31-yarder on which he made a spectacular one-handed grab in the corner of the end zone, despite tight coverage from TCU senior cornerback Channing Canada. Some observers proclaimed it as the “college touchdown catch of the year.”

USC was held to 112 rushing yards. Redshirt freshman running back King Miller led the Trojans with 99 yards on 25 runs. He scored one rushing touchdown.

The Trojans’ leading scorer was redshirt freshman kicker Ryon Sayeri, who was a
semifinalist for the 2025 Lou Groza Award. He set the USC record for most field goals in
a season by kicking four against the Frogs, from 40, 28, 41, and 22 yards.

TCU’s defense was led, as usual, by senior linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr. He had 11 tackles, including 1.5 tackles-for-loss and one quarterback-hurry. It was the sixth time this season that Elarms-Orr recorded double-digit tackles. He was named the game’s Defensive Most Valuable Player.

Junior safety Jamel Johnson had an interception late in the first quarter that led to Denman’s rushing touchdown early in the second quarter that gave TCU a 7-3 lead. Johnson also had seven tackles, as did senior linebacker Namdi Obiazor and junior defensive end Paul Oyewale, who also has a quarterback-hurry.

Johnson’s interception was his fifth of the season, the most on the team and also the most by a Horned Frog since Clark had five in 2022.

Canada intercepted a pass in the end zone that thwarted a drive by the Trojans. The interception was his first of the season and the second of his career.

TCU had multiple interceptions for the fifth consecutive bowl game.

“The defense kept hanging in there and playing hard,” said Dykes. “They got the stops that were needed to give us a chance to win. Three times we held them to field goals. That obviously was the difference in the game.”

The decisive defensive stand by the Horned Frogs came in the overtime period.

USC took the overtime’s opening drive to the TCU two-yard line in three plays, aided by a pass interference penalty against the Frogs. On three plays from the two-yard line, the Trojans lost three yards, which forced them to settle for a 22-yard field goal, setting the stage for TCU’s dramatic victory three plays later.

The win improved TCU’s overall record against USC to 4-2. This was the first time the Frogs and Trojans had played since TCU defeated USC 28-19 in the 1998 Sun Bowl.

This was the first time TCU had beaten a team coached by Lincoln Riley. Previously, as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, Riley had beaten the Horned Frogs five consecutive times.

Woke up feeling pretty amazing this morning!!! Go Frogs! https://t.co/0i5PjOx96R
— KillerFrogs.com (TCU On SI) (@Killer_Frogs) December 31, 2025

The Carryover From a Win Like This

TCU opens its next bid for a position in the College Football Playoff and a national championship on August 29, 2026. The Horned Frogs will play their season-opener against the University of North Carolina in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland.

No doubt the Frogs will go into the off-season and into their special 2026 season-opener with confidence and momentum gained from their impressive Alamo Bowl win.

“This is a good football program, on the verge of being a great football program,” said Dykes. “We all want it to be great. We all want to be in the Playoff. I want to be in the Playoff every year. I know our players want to be in the Playoff every year. And I know our fans want to be. We’re going to work our tails off to get there.”

Midnite Madness - Another Alamo Bowl, Another Fairytale Ending