Barry Sanders put together a Heisman Trophy-winning season in 1988. To this day, it rates on a level largely its own.
Near the midway point of the 2024 season, Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is putting up numbers at a pace to challenge the legendary Sanders.
BSU shared a graphic on its social media channels offering a side-by-side comparison of Oklahoma State’s No. 21 and the Broncos’ No. 2. Through five games in 1988, Sanders had 1,002 rushing yards on 130 carries and scored 17 touchdowns; Jeanty has 1,031 yards on 95 carries with 16 touchdowns.
It’s not a one-to-one comparison. Sanders also returned a punt and kickoff for touchdowns through the Cowboys’ first two games. However, the context of Jeanty’s performance makes his start to 2024 uniquely special.
Jeanty’s eye-popping stats are being produced during competitive games. He’s never around when the game is out of reach. He has yet to carry 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 sideline in blowouts against Portland State and Utah State.
Coach Spencer Danielson could choose to manufacture even more impressive statistics for his star running back, but Jeanty’s role for the Broncos is more significant than merely impressing award voters.
“Ashton Jeanty is the best player in the country,” Danielson said following the 62-30 rout of Utah State in the Broncos’ Mountain West Conference opener on October 5. On a day when Jeanty carried just 13 times but accrued 186 yards, Danielson added, “I am proud of all the rest of our guys being able to step up. When [opposing defenses] load the box, [quarterback Maddux Madsen] was able to get the ball to playmakers.”
The result of that balance keeps defenses—including No. 3-ranked Oregon—off balance. Boise State is scoring more than 50 points per game, No. 1 in the country.
Both the collective team output and Jeanty’s contribution are even more impressive considering the Broncos’ offensive line is missing starters and preseason All-MW honorees Mason Randolph and Roger Carreon.
This context adds another layer to Jeanty’s Heisman candidacy. Averaging more than 206 yards per game, Jeanty is on pace to eclipse Rashaad Penny’s Mountain West record of 2,248 yards gained in 2017—and to do so in one fewer game.
With a projected total of 2,475 yards through 12 games based on his current output, Jeanty would 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 garnered 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 that, frankly, showed running backs more respect. It’s been almost a decade since Derrick Henry became the last running back to claim college football’s top individual honor.
Surely, historically significant production gets Jeanty into the conversation. But how does he overcome the dual handicap of playing for a program outside the autonomy conferences and playing a position that is often undervalued at the ballot box?
Well, Week 6 offered a template for at least one necessary step in the blueprint: Jeanty needs would-be frontrunners from the power conferences to suffer high-profile stumbles.
Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe became an early Heisman favorite with his performance in a win over Georgia, but a loss the following week to Vanderbilt stunted his odds. Colorado two-way sensation Travis Hunter and Miami quarterback Cam Ward head into Week 7 looking like leading contenders.
Hunter’s candidacy relies on his dizzying snap totals from playing on both sides of the ball. The season-long feasibility of him continuing to do so at a high level just isn’t favorable given the natural attrition.
A lot of football remains, so presumably another frontrunner will emerge. However, should the race come down to Ward and Jeanty, there’s another step for the Boise State running back to consider, based on the last time the Heisman race featured a Miami quarterback and a non-power conference running back.
In 1992, Gino Torretta beat out San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk for the prize, thanks in part to the Hurricanes beating the Aztecs head-to-head. The outcome of that game—a 63-17 romp for The U—was less significant than Faulk missing the marquee showdown with a sprained knee.
As basic as it might seem, there’s a line of coach speak that fits Jeanty’s Heisman roadmap: availability is the best ability. Staying healthy and remaining at the forefront of Boise State’s pursuit of a College Football Playoff berth is paramount—and in a way, it makes Danielson’s decision not to pile unnecessary carries on Jeanty’s workload to pad the stat sheet far more valuable to the back’s Heisman case in the long run.
The last and perhaps most obvious step for Jeanty is to keep producing. Continuing on a Sanders-like pace means Jeanty must do even more down the stretch, given Barry had three regular-season games of 312 yards or more in the back half of Oklahoma State’s 1988 season.
That’s a lofty standard to expect Jeanty to match—the loftiest, if you consider Sanders’ ’88 the sport’s gold standard. But so far, No. 2 has stacked up nicely against No. 21’s standard.