Boise State football witnessed Ashton Jeanty break past a major barrier not seen since 2019. With a simple five-yard gain in Laramie during the third quarter, Jeanty joined an exclusive fraternity: The 2,000-yard club.
Jeanty is officially past that yardage mark — gashing Wyoming with 169 rushing yards. He spearheaded the narrow 17-13 victory over the Cowboys Saturday on the road, which now seals BSU a spot in the Mountain West Conference title game.
But for the RB himself, this new accolade adds further growth for Jeanty’s Heisman Trophy candidacy. The star running back has now hit 2,062 yards with only one regular season game left. He approached 100 yards immediately on this house call during the first quarter.
He’s now delivered the 20th best rushing yardage production in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history. Jeanty even surpassed some notable names with his current 2024 yardage mark: Jonathan Taylor (2,003 yards in 2019 with Wisconsin), Christian McCaffrey (2,019 in 2015 while at Stanford), and 1994 Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam (2,055 yards for Colorado to win the award).
Even more miraculous, Jeanty ran the football on an apparent injury during the second half.
What ailment did Ashton Jeanty run with during Boise State win?
Broncos head coach Spencer Danielson gave a brief concerning update with the CBS Sports Network in the third quarter. Danielson mentioned that his thoroughbred RB was “banged up.” Yet he didn’t elaborate on Jeanty’s injury at the time.
It later appeared Jeanty sustained a leg injury. Boise State decided to let Jeanty stand on the sidelines to rest momentarily.
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Jeanty took only 20 handoffs on the evening. That became 12 carries less than his handoff number at San Jose State. Except this time, the junior tallied a higher average yards per carry at 8.45. He settled for a 4.97 yard average against the Spartans in that 42-21 romp last Saturday.
Jeanty even crossed the end zone just once at War Memorial Stadium. He busted the hat trick in scoring three times in the Silicon Valley. But he now has a personal streak of seven straight games with a touchdown.
Boise State’s record-breaking runner now can claim the title of the school’s first-ever 2,000-yard rusher. And he’s starring at a place that produced 2012 first round RB Doug Martin. The NCAA last saw four 2,000-yard rushers in the same season back in 2019. Chuba Hubbard led that year with 2,094 yards at Oklahoma State. Taylor joined him plus J.K. Dobbins (2,003 with Ohio State) and Malcolm Perry (2,017 at Navy) to comprise the 2,000-yard quartet.
Jeanty now ended the short dry spell for FBS running backs. He adds a new broken barrier in his pursuit of college’s highest individual honor.