Sam Darnold’s first, and biggest, connection as a Seahawk. Jake Bobo’s huge weekend, too
Sam Darnold has said his girlfriend of two years has been “unbelievable” keeping Seattle’s new $100 million quarterback level-headed off the field.
Jake Bobo began dating his gal two colleges ago, into this, his third year in the NFL with the Seahawks. Bobo credits her — for football. Specifically, the wide receiver says Mackenize Cole has been teaching him the five different offenses Bobo has had to learn in his last five years of football, from Duke to UCLA, to now three systems in his first three years with the Seahawks.
Bobo calls Cole “my go-to.”
Now Darnold and Bobo have just gone to the ultimate in their relationships.
This past holiday weekend, the quarterback made his first — and most important — connection as a Seahawk. Darnold got engaged to Katie Hoofnagle.
He asked her to marry him in Dana Point, California. It’s near where the 27-year-old Darnold grew up and went to high school in San Clemente, then college at USC.
Hoofnagle went to the other USC. She’s a graduate in marketing from the University of South Carolina, where she played club soccer.
“YES!!!!!” Hoofnagle posted on Instagram next to their engagement photo on the beach in Dana Point.
They met in 2023, when Darnold was a backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Darnold was learning the basis of the Shanahan coaching-tree offense then. The quarterback is going to run it again July 23 when the Seahawks begin training camp with him leading their new, outside-zone offense.
It’s a scheme Bobo’s girlfriend — now fiancee — has been drilling her wide receiver on daily for months.
Bobo and Cole also got engaged last weekend. They also announced it on Instagram.
“It was always you,” Cole posted next to their engagement photo.
Bobo and her friends know her as “Macka.”
Now the Seahawk knows her as his soon-to-be wife.
Cole met Bobo when she was a libero defensive specialist on Duke University’s volleyball. Bobo was a wide receiver for Duke at the time.
Theirs was a very 2020s college-athlete relationship: Both entered the transfer portal together, in 2022. Both transferred to UCLA. Both played the fall 2022 season for the Bruins.
Duke’s and UCLA’s were two of the new offenses Bobo had to learn back to back, in 2021 and ‘22. The third offense was when the Seahawks signed him as a rookie free agent in the spring of 2023. He absorbed then executed offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s formations and play calls his rookie year.
Last year, he did the same for the new offense Ryan Grubb installed, after the former University of Washington coordinator became an NFL play caller for the first time.
But Grubb lasted just one season. The 2024 Seahawks missed the playoffs. The team fired Grubb in January.
Seattle replaced him with Klint Kubiak this past winter. Kubiak, a former offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints (last year), was the passing-game coordinator for the 49ers in 2023. That was when Darnold was with the Niners — and met his now-fiancee.
Kubiak’s wide-zone system is the fifth offense Bobo’s learned in five years.
When The News Tribune asked Bobo at the end of the Seahawks’ minicamp last month how he’s learned all the new systems to become a Seattle mainstay, the 26-year-old wide receiver smiled.
Film? A mobile tablet device?
No. Bobo says he’s old-school. And personal.
“My go to is, I just, I’ve got a whiteboard at home. And go home every night, draw the plays,” he said.
“And then, actually, shout out to my girlfriend, who’s living out here with me now. She reads it back to me a little at home.
“Yeah, I’ve got a walk-through (practice) going every night. Really.”
No wonder he wants to marry her.
“Yeah, man,” Bobo said. “It’s been great.
“She doesn’t exactly have the huddle cadence down yet,” he said, chuckling.
Her quizzing of Bobo on the offense is now going to be as the Seahawk’s fiancee instead of girlfriend.
“Yeah, it’s interesting — interesting because she’s the best,” Bobo said. “She’s been a big part of my success here, and everywhere. You know, we’ve been together for a long time. She was at Duke, UCLA. We were in the transfer portal at the same time..
“Yeah, man, we made it work a bunch of years. And she’s been a huge piece of my success, for sure.”
Drake Thomas’ big weekend
Seahawks linebacker Drake Thomas beat Bobo and Darnold to his engagement. The 25-year old proposed to Haylie Beck last week.
Yes, she said yes, too.
Josh Jobe engaged, too
A fourth Seahawks player got engaged this offseason. Cornerback Josh Jobe, 27, announced his engagement to Nayomie Suarez online in April.
Jobe was Seattle’s cornerback outside 65% of snaps last season. That was primarily when the Seahawks went to nickel defense, with Devon Witherspoon as the inside, slot cornerback last season. Jobe was in that role again during offseason practices this May and June.
That was before the team signed back their 2017 draft choice Shaquill Griffin June 25 for depth at cornerback.
Cornerback will be one of the positions with the most competition for playing time in training camp.
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 12:07 PM.
