SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Ken Seals had to bide time on the bench until his final college game to make his first start for his beloved TCU Horned Frogs, but it was truly worth the wait.
Seals directed two scoring drives in the final five minutes of regulation and threw the winning touchdown pass in overtime as TCU rallied to beat No. 16 USC 30-27 on Tuesday night in the Alamo Bowl.
“It felt like a movie,” Seals said. “I just can’t even … I’m not processing it. This is just an unbelievable experience. The week leading up to it, the last 10 days, and then finishing it in this fashion is just more than any guy can dream.”
Seals completed 29 of 40 passes for 258 yards and the game-ending score.
After being sacked for a 10-yard loss on second down in overtime, Seals was facing third-and-20 from the 35 when he found running back Jeremy Payne with a short toss in the left flat. Payne caught the ball at the line of scrimmage and wriggled past four defenders, breaking multiple tackles as he bolted down the sideline into the end zone.
“I’m not really surprised,” said TCU linebacker and Defensive MVP Kaleb Elarms-Orr. ”Shoot, he be shaking me at practice sometimes, too. I’m not surprised that he just went out there and made a bunch of dudes miss. He was doing it all night. Once he made that first dude miss, I knew he was gone.”
Payne had six catches for 50 yards. He also rushed for 73 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
A sixth-year senior, Seals got the opportunity to start when TCU quarterback Josh Hoover opted to enter the transfer portal on Dec. 18. Seals backed up Hoover the past two seasons after transferring from Vanderbilt, where he started 22 games over three seasons.
Seals grew up a Horned Frogs fan in Azle, about 23 miles from the TCU campus.
“My mentality was just sell out, it’s your last one, man,” Seals said.
Seals directed a 13-play, 59-yard drive in the final 2:44 of regulation to force overtime on a 27-yard field goal by Kyle Lemmermann as time expired.
It was the fourth overtime in the bowl’s 33-year history.
TCU (9-4) limited USC (9-4) to a 22-yard field goal on the opening possession of OT despite incurring a pass-interference call in the end zone that gave the Trojans a first down at the 2-yard line.
USC freshman Ryon Sayeri also had field goals of 40, 28 and 41 yards.
“We had a couple of unique calls that just didn’t quite bounce our way,” Trojans coach Lincoln Riley said. “But we just did not execute good enough in the red zone either side of the ball.”
Trojans junior quarterback Jayden Maiava passed for 280 yards and a touchdown but threw two interceptions.
USC failed to score early in the third quarter following an interception by Christian Pierce. The drive ended when Maiava’s pass was intercepted in the end zone.
Jaden Richardson scored on a one-handed grab for USC in the front left corner of the end zone with 49 seconds remaining in the third. Richardson reached back with his right arm as he was falling backward, pulling the ball into his chest and tapping his right foot inbounds for a 21-yard touchdown reception from Maiava.
Taniela Tupou’s two-point reception extended USC’s lead to 21-14.
TCU grabbed a 14-13 lead in the first half on a pair of short rushing touchdowns that capped 75-yard drives.
USC: The Trojans failed to win 10 games for the third straight season.
TCU: The Horned Frogs had a prolific offense this season but must start anew next year. In addition to Hoover entering the transfer portal, TCU lost offensive coordinator Kendal Briles to South Carolina, and top wide receiver Eric McAlister is headed to the NFL.
USC: Will host Fresno State on Sept. 5 next year in what could be the first game of Maiava’s Heisman Trophy campaign.
TCU: Will face North Carolina on Aug. 29 in Dublin, Ireland, to kick off next year’s college football season.
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TCU running back Jeremy Payne, center, celebrates with teammates after he ran for a touchdown against Southern California during overtime in the Alamo Bowl NCAA college football game in San Antonio, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is rising toward records Tuesday after an easing of oil prices let Wall Street turn its focus back to the big profits that companies keep producing.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and was on track to top its all-time high set at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 225 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.
Stocks got a boost after oil prices gave back some of their big jumps from Monday. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.7% to $111.43 after briefly topping $115 on Monday, though it’s still well above its roughly $70 price from before the war with Iran.
A ceasefire in the war appears to be holding, even after the United Arab Emirates said Monday that Iran fired missiles and drones at it. The U.S. military is trying to force open a path in the Strait of Hormuz, which would allow oil tankers to resume shipments from the Persian Gulf and hopefully bring down the price of crude.
Iran’s powerful parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, accused the United States of undermining regional security with the effort to end Iran’s stranglehold on the strait and warned that Tehran will respond.
Even with the war ongoing, the U.S. stock market has remained remarkably resilient on its record-setting run. That’s in large part due to the strong profits that U.S. companies have reported for the start of 2026 despite the rise in oil prices since the end of February.
“This has been a ‘why ask why’ market,” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “You just have to go with it.”
Even though many risks are still weighing on the market, “investors are looking at earnings” and how much companies are spending on AI data centers and other investments, he said.
DuPont’s stock climbed 5.5% Tuesday after the chemical giant led another cavalcade of companies reporting better-than-expected profits for the latest quarter.
DuPont said its water technologies business felt some impact because of the war with Iran due to logistics disruptions in the Middle East. But it nevertheless raised its forecasts for financial results over the full year due in part to its strong start to 2026.
Other winners included American Electric Power Co., which rose 3%, and Cummins, which added 3.2%, after they likewise made more money during the first three months of the year than analysts expected.
Pinterest soared 10% after the online bulletin board topped Wall Street’s first-quarter sales and profit targets as its number of active monthly users jumped 11% to 631 million.
AB InBev likewise topped analysts’ profit forecasts, and it credited growth for its Corona, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra brands outside of their home markets. “Cheers to beer,” CEO Michel Doukeris said, as the company’s stock that trades in the United States rallied 7.9%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe. The CAC 40 rose 0.7% in Paris, but the FTSE 100 fell 1.3% in London. Many Asian markets were closed for holidays, as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.35%, saying conflict in the Middle East had sharply increased fuel and commodity prices that were already adding to inflation.
In the U.S. bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave back some of Monday’s gains. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.42% from 4.45% late Monday.
That’s still well above its 3.97% level from just before the war began. That rise has made mortgages and other kinds of loans for U.S. households and businesses more expensive.
AP Writers Chan Ho-him, Matt Ott and Rod McGuirk contributed.
Specialist Patrick King works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Options trader Anthony Spina, foreground, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A board above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
FILE - A train arrives at a Wall Street subway station in New York's Financial District on Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
