How special bond with assistant coach helped lead Seth McGowan to Kentucky

Not much has gone right for Kentucky football’s offense through two games, but running back Seth McGowan is well on his way to living up to his preseason hype.

UK has a long-term relationship between McGowan and running backs coach Jay Boulware to thank for him being on the roster.

“They talk about the nature of this game now and the politics and how priceless genuine connection is,” McGowan said. “But I have known (Boulware) since I was, like 14 years old, damn near going on a decade. Over the past couple years he was one of the few coaches that when I wasn’t playing nowhere he was still like texting me, texting my family, just making sure we were good.

“He’d call me a couple times a year, even while he was here (at Kentucky), when he was in Pittsburgh. So that felt good.”

Boulware was the coach who originally recruited McGowan as a four-star prospect from Mesquite, Texas, to Oklahoma. He was McGowan’s position coach when McGowan totaled 571 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns as a freshman for the Sooners.

But McGowan’s career went awry from there.

In April 2021, McGowan and two Sooners teammates stole marijuana, jewelry, high-dollar shoes and cash from a Norman, Oklahoma, apartment. One of the other players was armed with a gun during the incident.

The players were initially charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Had they been convicted of those charges, they could have spent decades in prison. Instead, they pled guilty to larceny of a person at nighttime, a felony.

McGowan would spend three months in jail after his plea before a judge sentenced him to a year of probation. He was kicked off the team at Oklahoma and could not find a school willing to take him for the 2022 season while his legal case played out. McGowan eventually resurfaced at NAIA Texas College, then spent the 2023 season at Butler Community College.

After transferring to New Mexico State in 2024, McGowan began to show his high school recruiting hype was justified. There, he totaled 1,110 all-purpose yards with six touchdowns.

With one season of eligibility remaining, McGowan decided he needed to search for an opportunity at a Power Four program to prove to NFL scouts he could perform against better competition. Kentucky was in search of another running back after spring practice, giving McGowan the chance to reunite with his first college position coach.

“In the recruiting process, and especially if you sign a kid, those relationships don’t end there,” Boulware said. “Obviously you can’t tamper and those type of things, but when he was down and nobody else was talking to the kid, I wanted to still be there. I wanted to let him know that, ‘Hey, man, look, trouble doesn’t last forever.’

“I mean, we all go through some tough times, man, and you have to fight your way out of this.”

Boulware’s familiarity with McGowan was key in UK coach Mark Stoops signing off on adding a player with a felony on his record to a program looking to rebuild its blue-collar mentality. McGowan has spoken openly, including in a one-on-one interview with the Herald-Leader in July, about using his mistakes to try to help younger teammates from straying down the wrong path like he did.

But the relationship between player and coach has thrived specifically because Boulware made the effort to stay in touch when it was not apparent McGowan would ever be able to play again.

“I also want him to know that God has got him,” Boulware said. “God is with you. And so, this is my calling. I feel like my job is so much bigger than just trying to be there for a guy because he can do something for me. It’s not about that.

“It’s about helping, developing these young men and giving them a resource, and not letting them lose hope so someday they can be … fathers, husbands, coworkers, uncles and all that type of stuff. And so that’s what it was all about. It’s just who we are.”

Through two games at Kentucky, McGowan is averaging 5.2 yards per carry with three touchdowns. In his first game back in the national spotlight since his Oklahoma arrest, McGowan totaled 15 carries for 93 yards and two touchdowns in an ABC-televised game against Ole Miss last Saturday.

But McGowan knows there is more work to do.

“I don’t think that the state of Kentucky is happy right now just because a player may have played OK,” McGowan said after the loss. “I think that ultimately we’re playing this game to win. I don’t care what the outcome is, other than if we won the game or if we didn’t win the game.

“...It doesn’t matter how good or bad one of us played, or any individual. Just get better week by week. Take that next step and see where that lands us.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 6:30 AM.

Jon Hale

Lexington Herald-Leader

(859) 414-6776

Jon Hale is the University of Kentucky football beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the Herald-Leader in 2022 but has covered UK athletics for more than 10 years. Hale was named the 2021 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year. Support my work with a digital subscription