Seth McGowan leads the SEC in rushing touchdowns through 3 games

Everything seems to be coming together for Seth McGowan — and the Kentucky Wildcats are benefitting from his great play through three contests.

McGowan has only improved his on-field production with every passing game this season. The 5-foot-11, 220-pound running back recorded 78 yards and a touchdown in his Kentucky debut against Toledo before racking up 93 yards and a pair of scores in the loss to Ole Miss. His best performance came on Saturday in the Wildcats’ 48-23 win over Eastern Michigan: 18 carries for 104 yards and a trio of touchdowns. He’s averaging 5.4 yards per rush on the season.

“Seth has been very steady,” Head coach Mark Stoops said after the win against EMU. “He’s been very efficient this year, he runs very tough. He’s a guy that runs with a lot of energy. He’s kind of wild with the way he runs. You don’t know what’s gonna come out, you know? It’s between him and God. But he’s been running very tough, very tough yards when he has to. But also will make some very drastic cuts and some moves. I’m very pleased with the way he’s playing, too.”

While it’s only been three games, McGowan is on pace to have an all-time season. According to UK statistician Corey Price, McGowan is the only Wildcat over the last 40 years with six rushing touchdowns through the first three games of the season. Equally as impressive is the fact that McGowan leads the entire Southeastern Conference in total touchdowns and points scored by a non-quarterback. His 36 points off six touchdowns are tops in the SEC, just one point ahead of Tennessee kicker Max Gilbert.

.@Sjmcg_28 has the most rushing touchdowns by a @UKFootball player within the first 3 games of a season (6) since George Adams in 1984 (7)

— Corey Price (@coreyp08) September 14, 2025

McGowan has already matched his career-high for total touchdowns in a single season. He finished with four as a freshman at Oklahoma in 2020 and six last season at New Mexico State. During his 2023 sophomore season in community college, he also totaled four scores. Once a four-star high school recruit who made mistakes as a young man, McGowan has gotten his life with football back on track.

The on-field results prove it, but the Texas native is still hungry for more.

“That’s the whole goal of this game. Is you want to be perfect,” McGowan said postgame. “Like I said, I didn’t care about my performance last week, I don’t care about my performance this week. Only thing I care about is the win. Obviously, I feel like I could have done a lot better. I feel like I still left a lot of yards out there. That’s the stuff that’s gotta be eliminated. We’re seeking championship football. You can’t leave any yards out there.

“That’s just something I got to focus on, just keep getting better, keep focusing in, watching that film, and hopefully, keep climbing up.”

The last Kentucky player to have three rushing touchdowns was a guy named Ray Davis in 2023. Derrick Locke was the last Wildcat to record at least 75 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground in each of his first three games. Granted, two of McGowan’s big outings have come against Toledo and Eastern Michigan, but he was just as effective against Ole Miss. He averaged 6.2 yards per carry against the Rebels. McGowan is a true bruiser, tough to bring all the way down to the turf.

Especially with Kentucky experiencing a quarterback change, having McGowan (and Dante Dowdell, another bell cow in the backfield) as someone offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan can lean on is a necessary piece to the team’s overall success moving forward.

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