Even Ken Seals was puzzled by USC's questionable Alamo Bowl defense

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The hits keep coming for USC football‘s defense. Over 2 weeks after the Alamo Bowl happened, USC fans are getting a better picture of why USC’s defense was so inconsistent in that game, and perhaps why it struggled all season long.

Podcast revelation

On Tuesday, TCU football quarterback Ken Seals, the MVP of the Alamo Bowl, went on the House of Playmakers podcast hosted by former TCU and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Trevone Boykin to talk about the Horned Frogs’ Alamo Bowl win over the Trojans.

Seals talked to a great extent about the game, providing a lot of insight into his mindset and competitiveness, but his comments about USC’s defense stood out the most.

“First couple drives of the game, we’re feeling them out trying to see are they going to be the same team, are they going to switch it up?” Seals said. “What I started seeing a lot on the iPad was they’re showing this one high picture but they’re really dropping 8, playing zone. I’m like, I don’t know what that’s about. Maybe they’re scared of me throwing the ball or something? I’m like, hell yeah.”

“I started picking up a lot of their tendencies on the iPad, and so around the second quarter, I felt like I really got a good beat on them.”

Red flag

If even Seals could easily see why USC’s Alamo Bowl strategy was a bad one, and felt he could pick it apart easily, that’s a massive red flag. Let’s talk about why.

Seals, historically, is not a very good quarterback

Seals did have some Power 4 starting experience before playing against USC in the Alamo Bowl. 22 starts to be exact, all at Vanderbilt.

But in those 22 starts, Seals was 2-20. 2 wins and 20 losses. He’s thrown more interceptions in his career (24) than games started (23). He is just not that great!

And Seals himself is aware of this, based on his comments on Boykin’s podcast! Even he was puzzled why USC was playing such deep coverage on him, as if he was an elite quarterback who was a threat to dice up the Trojan secondary.

So Seals played within himself and took advantage of what the USC defense was giving him…the shorter, easy throws. And TCU rushed for 117 yards and 3 touchdowns as well. Argh!

Clear evidence Eric Henderson should not be defensive coordinator

Remember, USC’s defensive play caller in this game was not D’Anton Lynn, who had already accepted the Penn State defensive coordinator position. It was Eric Henderson.

To me, this is clear evidence that Henderson should not be promoted to defensive coordinator at USC in 2026. Yes, Henderson only had 1 day to prepare to call games in the bowl. But, failing to realize who the opponent is feels like a categorical strategic failure. And if Seals was able to see what USC was trying to do this easily…how can Trojan fans be confident that Henderson will win the chess match against better quarterbacks?

Problem all season long

But I don’t think what Seals talked about on the podcast was just an Eric Henderson problem, or even just an Alamo Bowl problem. I think USC played this kind of soft coverage all season and other teams took advantage. If it was that obvious to me at home, then it was definitely obvious to opposing defenses.

Think back to the Notre Dame game. CJ Carr played awful. But USC dropped so far back in coverage like they were expecting Carr to unload an 80 yard touchdown all game long. Carr wasn’t even accurate on passes behind the sticks! Meanwhile, Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price ran all over the Trojans. For 306 yards!

It was the same story in USC’s game vs. Oregon. Dante Moore played okay, but not better than Jayden Maiava! Meanwhile, the Ducks out gained USC on the ground 179-52.

USC needs to get a defensive coordinator that fixes this issue. From my point of view, they didn’t play smart or aggressive defense in 2025. And forget about fundamentals and discipline, sheesh.

Also shows USC’s inability to adjust, lock in at key moments

Something that Seals didn’t talk about is that USC’s defense dominated the Alamo Bowl at times. The Trojans forced four three-and-outs and picked off a pass.

The issue was USC’s inability to play the chess match and stop TCU’s momentum. Football is a game of adjustments. TCU adjusted. USC, seemingly, was a step behind and didn’t make the most important adjustments in crunch time. And whatever adjustments they did make were not enough to keep Seals from sensing USC’s nervousness on the defensive end.

The game meant a lot to Seals, too

Seals also mentioned something else on the podcast that I believe gave him and the Horned Frogs an edge: his will to win.

“It was like my only game ever,” Seals said about why the game meant so much to him. “And I’ll be completely honest, Coach [Sonny] Dykes and everyone else like to talk about, ‘Oh yeah, he started 22 games at Vanderbilt’ or whatever. I only won two of those.”

That is why bowl games still matter, amidst all of the opt-outs and transfer portal madness. It gives unlikely heroes the chance to see the field and make college football memories that they couldn’t have otherwise.

Seals stepped up and played the role of the unlikely hero for TCU. USC’s usual suspects played well, but they didn’t have really anyone put up a surprising star performance. That could have easily been a huge difference in the game.

Short of the standard

TCU did well in general of staying together as a team and playing to win the Alamo Bowl despite the departure of star quarterback Josh Hoover. USC needed to do better and finding its motivation to win, and there is no excuse next season for the Trojans to not treat every play as if its the most important play of their lives.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: TCU Alamo Bowl quarterback reacts to USC football’s flawed defense

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