Barry Sanders’ 1988 season with the Oklahoma State Cowboys is widely considered to be the greatest individual season by a running back in the history of college football. Five games into 2024, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty is putting up numbers that rival Sanders‘ historic campaign.
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Jeanty leads all of college football with 1,031 rushing yards, 260 more than the second-leading rusher despite two fewer attempts, good for an almost unthinkable average of 10.9 yards per carry. He’s also tallied 16 touchdowns, four more than anyone else in college football.
Jeanty’s performance thus far in 2024 has made him the undisputed front-runner for the Heisman Trophy.
ASHTON JEANTY IS UNREAL 🤯
HIS FIRST TOUCH OF THE GAME WAS A TOUCHDOWN 👏
(via @CFBONFOX) pic.twitter.com/rwaGqiPvrJ
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) October 5, 2024
Perhaps most importantly for Jeanty, however, is that his team is 4-1 and has vaulted to No. 17 in the country. The Broncos’ only loss came in Week 2 at Oregon, now ranked No. 3 in the nation, when the Ducks kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired.
Yet as the national spotlight has recently pointed his way, the 20-year-old junior hasn’t stopped talking about what’s most important to him.
“I like to say that I’m a Christian cleverly disguised as an All-American running back,” Jeanty said in a video with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes that he recently posted on Instagram. “I’ve learned that God has blessed me with amazing talents. I’ve just been able to do a lot of great things with it, but at the same time, not losing yourself in it and understanding that my identity is in Christ.”
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Jeanty explained in the video that he grew up with parents who introduced him to faith at a young age, but having a relationship with God didn’t really make sense to him. The move from Frisco, Texas, to Boise, Idaho, for college in 2022 was a difficult one for Jeanty, and the changes in his life and lack of a sure foundation led to feelings of depression.
That all began to change as his faith in God began to grow.
“Once I decided to give my life to Him and change my ways, it’s been an ultimate transformation,” he said. “… I felt that this (Boise) community has helped me grow tremendously. It’s very welcoming, it’s not forceful, it’s not aggressive in any type of way. It’s the way God would want it to be, and I could see — even before stepping foot on this campus — that God had His hands on this program. I could see that Christianity was a big thing here and that guys were real big on their faith.
“I learned to embrace that, and all the guys and people around the facility have embraced me.”
Jeanty quotes the Bible verse Luke 1:37 — “For nothing will be impossible with God” — in his Instagram and X bios.
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Jeanty’s explosion on the field in 2024 isn’t a complete surprise, as he did win the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year award as he led all of college football in yards from scrimmage (1,347 rushing, 569 receiving) in 2023. The 5-foot-9, 215-pound speedster decided to return for his junior year on the Broncos’ blue turf, a decision made much easier because of the home he’s found during his three years at Boise State. The school and the town are full of people who care for him and who point him to Christ, his ultimate hope.
“You don’t have to be perfect to come to God, but all you have to do is trust in Him and have faith in Him, and He will change your life,” Jeanty said in the FCA video. “I feel that everything that I’m doing now is because of that. Obviously I’ve been able to do some great things on the field, but beyond that, He’s changed my life. He’s changed my views, my personality. I felt that I wasn’t really a man before, I was just a boy. But now I feel as I’m a man, and a man of God.”
Jeanty will seek to continue to grow in Christ, even as he builds on his Heisman campaign, when his Broncos take their 4-1 record halfway across the Pacific Ocean for a Week 7 matchup at Hawaii (2-3). Kickoff is set for 11 p.m. ET Saturday.
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