As the college football regular season is coming to an end, two candidates for the Heisman award have emerged as leagues above the rest. The MVP award equivalent is always highly competitive, but neither of the two top candidates seem to be slowing down, and as they both take the world of college football by storm, the question of who will win gets more and more controversial.
Two-way wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter of the University Of Colorado Buffaloes began the year at the top of the Heisman race along with his very own quarterback Shedeur Sanders. His breakout 9-3 season under coach Deion Sanders (or “Coach Prime”) has had extensive media coverage and with the regular season ending for the Buffaloes, Hunter has kept his spot as the general favorite to win the Heisman through the entire college football season. That being said, he’s been joined by unexpected competition.
Ashton Jeanty, a running-back out of Boise State took the internet by storm this past season putting up record numbers in a conference-leading effort for the Broncos in which he was integral to the teams success. He’s broken national records in his efforts and put his team in their conference championship, making him undeniable competition for the suddenly-less-assured Heisman candidate Hunter.
Both have made their cases for being the most valuable player in college football, but when you really look at their seasons, it is clear who the winner should be.
WHAT MADE TRAVIS SO GOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE: You don’t just become the overwhelming favorite for the Heisman with nearly no competition off of being a good football player; you have to be a GENERATIONAL football player, and that absolutely describes Travis Hunter.
A lot of Hunter’s popularity comes from the fact that he quite literally played more football than anyone else. Playing both defense and offense worked in his favor, as he has totaled 1,266 snaps; more than any player since 2018.
Those 1,266 snaps weren’t snoozefests either. As a wide receiver, Hunter totaled 1,036 yards with 82 catches and 11 touchdowns, tying the University of Colorado record for receiving touchdowns in a season. On the other side of the ball he snatched 3 interceptions and showed an otherwise quiet stat line, which at first can be misinterpreted as a lack of production. However, a lack of stats is typically a sign of a great defensive back, because it means offenses refuse to target them for fear of getting swatted away or intercepted.
This is all numbers though. What makes Travis Hunter a generational player? The fact that he has managed to be a top prospect and threat in *both* of his positions. He could be drafted as the first cornerback or first wide receiver in 2025 with his talent, and that is no easy feat. Additionally, as far as the 9-3 Colorado Buffaloes, Travis Hunter IS the Buffaloes. He played over 80% of all snaps both defensive and offensive, and that is nothing to scoff at.
Undoubtedly, Travis Hunter’s output alone puts him at the top of the Heisman race. No player has been able to set themselves apart on both sides of the ball like him in a long time.
WHY TRAVIS HUNTER IS LOSING CREDIBILITY: “A jack of all trades is master of none.” Travis Hunter is an extremely talented player, but if this Heisman campaign was open and shut, we wouldn’t be talking about it. While being a top 5 player in both of his positions, he doesn’t find himself at the very top for either, which takes away some of his credibility.
Many argue that his snap count alone justifies his winning the Heisman, but it also works to his detriment. The Colorado Buffaloes find themselves 4th in their division, the Big 12, and with high profile losses to teams like Kansas. On the contrary, Ashton Jeanty’s Boise State Broncos boast a top seed in their division Mountain West with their only loss coming by a measly 3 points to the consensus best team in the nation, the Oregon Ducks.
With Hunter’s historical play time on this team, the 9-3 record reflects on him more than it would a typical player, and with Ashton Jeanty being essentially the entire Boise State offense, his 11-1 record reflects on him just the same. When you realize that both records can be highly attributed to the two candidates, it doesn’t look good for Hunter.
WHY ASHTON JEANTY SHOULD RUN AWAY WITH IT: So what makes Ashton Jeanty a contender? If Travis Hunter is a generational player, the best word to describe Jeanty would be “historical.” Jeanty finds himself at the top of nearly every rushing stat and by a wide margin. He routinely dropped over 200 yards and 3 touchdowns; blowing out teams so quickly that he’d be benched in the second half to give the rest of the offense a chance.
Being such a big part of the offense, Jeanty’s 11-1 conference championship qualifying season with the Boise Broncos is in large part a result of his play. Without Jeanty, Boise State likely finds itself outside the top 20. With Jeanty, they’re the 10th ranked team in the country (as opposed to Colorado’s 20th place in the national rankings.)
The biggest argument in Jeanty’s favor is his comparison to former Heisman winner and Alabama Crimson Tide alumni Derrick Henry, who since has made his name in the NFL as the stiff-arming, impossible to take down running-back for the Tennessee Titans and most recently Baltimore Ravens.
Henry won the Heisman after a dominant season in 2015 with competition from Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, who himself would go on to have a legendary NFL career. In his MVP regular season, Henry totaled 339 carries, for 1,986 yards and 23 touchdowns. When you compare Jeanty’s regular season stats of 312 carries, 2,288 yards and 28 touchdowns, it is clear as day who the Heisman winner should be. MORE yards and MORE touchdowns on LESS carries than one of the greatest college running-backs of all time and he hasn’t even gotten into the post-season yet; if Derrick Henry can win the Heisman off of those regular season stats, it shouldn’t even be a question that Ashton Jeanty will win.
Some argue that Jeanty’s success is a symptom of a weak conference. The Mountain West conference is no SEC, where Derrick Henry put up numbers against Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana; historically good teams. Mountain West hosts mostly unranked teams with the only decent ones soon to be departing for the Pac-12.
However, when you look at Jeanty’s game against No.1 ranked Oregon, Boise’s one loss on the season, he still put up a monster game with nearly 200 yards and 3 touchdowns (18 of his teams 34 points, or 21 if you count PAT’s). Perhaps his numbers are slightly inflated by a lack of competition but it’s hard to argue that had he been placed in a stronger conference that the result would’ve been much different. Again, it’s important to remember how often Jeanty was sat in the second half of games; if you think his numbers are inflated now, imagine if Boise’s staff hadn’t shown mercy to the competition.
While Travis Hunters two-way dominance and undeniable endurance and talent is nothing to scoff at, Ashton Jeanty has cemented his name amongst former Heisman winners in the record books; even outrunning and out-scoring Derrick Henry, who often finds himself in the conversation for “greatest collegiate runningback of all time.”
It is obvious that while Travis Hunter is a generational player, Ashton Jeanty is multi-generational. The best running-back from any graduating class and era of football finds competition in the Boise State Broncos jersey number 2, and it simply wouldn’t make sense to give the Heisman to Travis Hunter just because he played more football.