It shouldn’t be up for debate that Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty has been the best player in college football during the 2024 season, and should be the frontrunner for the Heisman.
In 12 games, Jeanty has rushed for 2,288 yards and 28 touchdowns. His yardage is the highest since Melvin Gordon’s 2,587 in 2014 and the fifth-highest total of all time. This season, he’s more than 700 yards clear of the next-closest player, Central Florida’s RJ Harvey at 1,577.
Jeanty isn’t considered the betting favorite to win the Heisman trophy, though. Colorado’s Travis Hunter is… and it’s no secret why.
Ever since Deion Sanders took the head coaching position at Colorado, the college football media has desperately tried to crown him as the best thing since sliced bread. After a 3-0 start in 2023, there were puff pieces aplenty about how Sanders was revolutionizing the sport by bringing newfound energy to Colorado football and drawing celebrities to their games.
The Buffaloes proceeded to win one more time for the remainder of the season, and the goalposts moved in order to make excuses for Sanders and company. This season Colorado markedly improved to 9-3, leading to the media once again serenading Sanders with praise for his team’s “unexpected” turnaround. The very same people who were anointing him the next legendary college football coach after three games last year, now claim that nobody could have reasonably expected the Buffaloes to be good.
Simultaneously, Colorado’s quarterback (Sanders’ son Shedeur) is considered a top-five draft pick while Hunter is being hyped as the best player in the sport at the college level. Hunter is unique for the fact that he plays both wide receiver and defensive back, but he’s not Shohei Ohtani. He’s a solid, perhaps bordering on elite contributor at both of the positions he plays, but his numbers don’t jump off the page as special at either of them the way Jeanty’s do.
It’s also worth noting that Hunter has shamelessly made winning the Heisman his top priority. In Friday’s blowout 52-0 win over Oklahoma State, he remained in the game in garbage time with the sole purpose of pumping up his numbers. Jeanty, on the other hand, has been a team player whose production has come fully authentically. He’s playing to help Boise State win games, not so that he himself can grab headlines.
That’s Hunter’s Heisman case in a nutshell, though. It’s built on narratives and attention-seeking behavior rather than actual production, all so that Sanders can get clicks. The media has seemingly predetermined Hunter to win the award because they know his coach is their hot new cash cow, and when his players are successful, it brings in money and ratings. They can take their victory laps over how nobody should’ve ever doubted the great Coach Prime (but also it wasn’t fair to have high standards for Colorado), and how he made this inspiring success story out of a player who was the top-rated recruit in his class.
In the meantime, the rest of us will remember the historic season that Ashton Jeanty had. No drama, no celebrities at his games, no look-at-me Heisman poses after every touchdown. Just straight-up domination on the field.
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