This year's Heisman Trophy race was unlike any in recent memory, which is already evident when you see a two-way player and a Group of Five running back battling for the award.
Even beyond Colorado's Travis Hunter and Boise State's Ashton Jeanty, the ballot is loaded with great stories. Miami QB Cam Ward started his career at the FCS level, as did Arizona State RB Cam Skattebo.
Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel is at his third school, while Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders is the son of an NFL legend (college football fans might be familiar with the name). Penn State's Tyler Warren, meanwhile, is a tight end. That alone is a rarity in the Heisman conversation.
Every contender has a story, but one in particular brought excellence every single week. He's earned the award more than anyone.
Here's the case for Jeanty to be the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner.
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Ashton Jeanty's Heisman resume
- 2,497 rushing yards
- 7.3 yards per carry
- 30 total touchdowns
- 192.1 yards per game
- No games under 125 rushing yards
- 192 yards, 3 TDs vs. unbeaten Oregon
- Boise State's first College Football Playoff appearance
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Why Ashton Jeanty should win the Heisman Trophy
Before 2022, it was fairly rare for a player on a team with multiple losses to win the Heisman Trophy. Robert Griffin III and Lamar Jackson were among those who defied the odds, but the scenario wasn't a common one. Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels both put to rest the narrative that a player needs to be on an elite team to win the award, winning with a combined five losses between them.
That's a good change, to be clear. The Heisman Trophy should go to the most outstanding player, and it shouldn't have anything to do with the players around him. When you have a player who posted jaw-dropping numbers and took his team to the highest level of the sport, though, it sounds a lot like what the Heisman Trophy is intended to reward.
Jeanty has managed to do both. Not only has he shredded defenses, but he also quite literally made all the difference for Boise State. No one who watched the Broncos play could tell you they would be a College Football Playoff team without Jeanty in the backfield. When he missed a drive against Wyoming in late November, it looked like the local high school team put on Boise State's royal blue helmets and took the field.
Opposing defenses routinely stacked the box against Jeanty, and he still overcame it every time. On his way to 2,497 yards, fourth in FBS history before his first playoff game, Jeanty didn't have a single game with fewer than 127 rushing yards.
For Jeanty, there was no slip-up, no dud, and certainly no 17-yard game. He brought it every week, and the result was one of the most statistically dominant offensive seasons in college football history.
The last running back to win the Heisman Trophy, Derrick Henry, had five games with fewer than 100 rushing yards. He also averaged 5.6 yards per carry to Jeanty's 7.3. A running back shouldn't have to be perfect to win the Heisman, but Jeanty was pretty close to it.
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Of course, Jeanty didn't face an SEC schedule like Henry did. The Mountain West is not the same as the SEC, and it goes without saying that 2,497 yards in the modern SEC would arguably be the greatest season ever. That's why Henry's 2,219 yards in 15 games could justifiably be considered more impressive than Jeanty's 2,497 yards in 13 games.
The idea that Jeanty wouldn't be able to perform against top competition is ludicrous, though. He ran for 192 yards and three touchdowns in a narrow loss to unbeaten Oregon, trampling a defense that held Ohio State's Quinshon Judkins to 23 yards on 11 carries and Michigan's duo of Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards to 68 yards on 18 carries. Facing the best rushing defense in the Mountain West, UNLV, Jeanty ran for 208 yards and a touchdown with a championship on the line.
When other teams loaded up their defenses with the sole intention of limiting Jeanty, he found a way to beat them anyway. That's what the greats do.
If a season like his was easy in the Mountain West, no one told any other running back in the conference. In fact, no one told any running back in the Group of Five as a whole. Jeanty finished 893 yards ahead of the next highest-rushing player in a Group of Five conference and a stunning 1,223 yards ahead of the next highest-rushing player in the Mountain West —1,223 yards would be a solid season on its own.
Believing Jeanty should win the Heisman Trophy doesn't mean Hunter didn't have an outstanding season. He absolutely did, and he should be celebrated for it. Being one-of-a-kind isn't the same as being the most outstanding player.
Posting 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns through the air doesn't win someone the Heisman. A good, solid defensive season with four interceptions doesn't win someone the Heisman. Put them together and you admittedly have someone who can potentially win college football's most coveted award — but not when another player is doing what Jeanty is doing and taking his team to the College Football Playoff in the process.
MORE: Boise State coach rips Deion Sanders over Heisman take
Hunter's two-way stardom is something the sport might not see again for a long time, but it would be hard to make the case it would be enough to keep Boise State at 12-1 if he and Jeanty traded jerseys. Instead, Colorado went 9-3. Pinning that on Hunter wouldn't be fair, but in a close race, it's perfectly fair to give the edge to the player who was the difference between his team either earning a playoff berth or playing in the Alamo Bowl.
If you believe the projections and prognostications, Hunter will become Colorado's first Heisman Trophy winner in 30 years on Saturday. It's hard to say he's undeserving. It was a unique race, and two players made history in more ways than one. If the award is supposed to go to the most outstanding player, though, it should go to the player who redefined greatness at one position over the player who did a nice job at two of them.
