Barry Sanders put together a Heisman Trophy winning season in 1988. To this day, it is mostly measured in its level.
Near the middle of the 2024 season, Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is quickly putting up numbers to challenge the legendary Sanders.
BSU shared a photo on its social media channels that provided a side-by-side comparison of Oklahoma State’s No. 21 and the Broncos’ No. Jeanty has 1,031 yards on 95 carries and 16 touchdowns.
It is not a one-to-one comparison. Sanders also returned a punt and a kick for a touchdown on the Cowboys’ first two plays. However, the context of Jeanty’s performance makes his debut in 2024 special.
Jeanty’s impressive statistics are produced during competitive games. There is no where the game is inaccessible. He hasn’t carried the ball more than 26 times in any of Boise State’s five games and spent much of the third and fourth quarters on the sidelines in blowouts against Portland State and Utah State.
Coach Spencer Danielson may choose to put up more impressive numbers for his star running back, but Jeanty’s role for the Broncos is more important than impressing voters.
“Ashton Jeanty is the best player in the country,” Danielson said after trailing Utah State 62-30 in the Broncos’ Mountain West Conference opener on Oct. 5. On a day in which Jeanty carried just 13 times but piled up 186 yards, Danielson. he added, “I’m proud that all our other guys were able to step up. When [opposing defenses] load box, [quarterback Maddux Madsen] he was able to get the ball from the players.”
The result of that balance is keeping the defense—including No. 3 of the Oregon standard—out of balance. Boise State averages over 50 points per game, which is No. 1 in the country.
Both the collective output and Jeanty’s contribution are even more impressive when you consider that the Broncos’ offensive line is without starters and preseason All-MW honorees Mason Randolph and Roger Carreon.
This context adds another layer to Jeanty’s Heisman candidacy. Averaging over 206 yards per game, Jeanty is on track to eclipse Rashaad Penny’s Mountain West record of 2,248 receiving yards in 2017—and to do so in one game less.
With an average of 2,475 yards through 12 games based on his current output, Jeanty will achieve regular season rushing numbers not seen since Marcus Allen in 1981 and Sanders in 1988 (2,342 and 2,628 yards, respectively, each in 11 games ).
Like Sanders, who received 559 first-place votes to Rodney Peete’s 70 in 1988, Allen was a runaway Heisman winner. He finished with 441 first-place votes to runner-up Herschel Walker’s 152.
Sanders and Allen also won the Heisman in an era where, frankly, we showed running backs more respect. It’s been nearly a decade since Derrick Henry was the last running back to receive college football’s top honor.
Indeed, a historically significant production puts Jeanty in the conversation. But how do you overcome the double handicap of playing a program outside of the independent conferences and playing an often overlooked place at the ballot box?
However, Week 6 provided a template for at least one necessary step in the plan: Jeanty needs top prospects from power conferences to deal with high-profile offense.
Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was an early Heisman favorite for his performance in the win over Georgia, but a loss the following week to Vanderbilt hurt his chances. Colorado two-way sensation Travis Hunter and Miami quarterback Cam Ward enter Week 7 looking like top contenders.
Hunter’s selection is based on his incredible rushing numbers from playing on both sides of the ball. His ability to continue to do so at a high level for the rest of the season is not good given the decline in nature.
There is still a lot of football left, so there will probably be another front runner. However, if the race comes down to Ward and Jeanty, there is another Boise State running back to consider, based on the last time the Heisman race featured a Miami quarterback and a conference powerless running back.
In 1992, Gino Torretta beat out San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk for the award, thanks in part to the Hurricanes beating the Aztecs. The outcome of that game—a 63-17 romp for the U—is less important since Faulk missed the marquee show with a sprained knee.
Basic as it may seem, there’s a line of coaches talking about the equivalent of Jeanty’s Heisman road map: availability is the best skill. Staying healthy and staying ahead of Boise State’s pursuit of a College Football Playoff berth is paramount—and in a way, it makes Danielson’s decision to not unnecessarily pile on Jeanty’s stat-sheet workload all the more important to the back-to-back Heisman case. in the long run.
The last and perhaps most obvious step for Jeanty is to continue production. Continuing at Sanders’ pace means Jeanty must do more in the season, as Barry had three regular-season games of 312 yards or more in the back half of Oklahoma State’s 1988 season.
That’s the highest standard you can expect Jeanty to match—pretty high, considering Sanders’ ’88 is the sport’s gold standard. But so far, No. 2 stacked up well against the No.
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