Jacksonville-born star running back could become first Heisman-winning RB since Yulee’s Derrick Henry

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There must be something in the water in Northeast Florida because the region continues to produce running backs that raise the bar for what football fans think is possible on a football field.

In 2015, Derrick Henry, who is from Yulee, about a 30-minute drive north of Jacksonville, became a household name while attending the University of Alabama.

He was particularly known for his monstrous physical stature (6′3, 242 pounds) combined with surprisingly blazing speed (4.54 40-yard dash), which allowed him to make plays like these during his three-year tenure as a member of the Crimson Tide and ultimately won him the prestigious Heisman Trophy, becoming the first running back to do so since 2009 when fellow Crimson Tide member Mark Ingram took the award home.

Nearly 10 years later, Ashton Jeanty, a Jacksonville-born running back for the Boise State Broncos, is on the verge of snapping the cold spell of running backs winning the Heisman Trophy, and he’s doing it in a way that is possibly more impressive than “King Henry.”

Rise to stardom

Jeanty is the son of Harry Jeanty, who was a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy who was stationed at NAS Jacksonville in 2003 when his son was born.

After bouncing around the United States, including stops in Georgia, Virginia, and Texas, Jeanty began his football career across the Atlantic Ocean in Naples, Italy, where high school football coach Jim Davis noticed Jeanty’s potential.

“He’s going up for a layup and he’s getting so much height I’m thinking this kid’s about to dunk the ball,” Davis said in an interview with the Associated Press. “And it’s like, ‘Wow, look at the power this kid has at such a young age.’”

After dominating the competition in Italy, Jeanty moved to Texas to advance his football career, and in his senior season at Lone Star High School in Frisco, he ran for over 1,800 yards and scored 41 total touchdowns.

While those numbers don’t match Derrick Henry’s astonishing 4,000+ yard, 50+ touchdown season at Yulee High School in his senior year, they’re still extraordinary.

Unfortunately, Jeanty’s production didn’t translate into many college offers from Power 5 schools (he received an offer from Cal), but Jeanty says that “fueled his fire” and he set out to prove that the one school that did take a chance on him wouldn’t regret it.

“It was never given to me,” Jeanty said in a sit-down interview with ESPN. “Everything was earned.”

In his first two years at Boise State, Jeanty rushed for 821 and 1,347 yards, respectively, and compiled 26 touchdowns (21 rushing, six receiving).

But from the very first carry of his junior year, Jeanty has performed like a player with something to prove, and his efforts may win him a Heisman trophy.

Comparison to previous Heisman-winning years

Currently, Jeanty has 2,062 rushing yards and 27 total touchdowns with two games left to play in the 2024 season.

For comparison, through 11 games of Derrick Henry’s Heisman-winning season, he totaled 1,526 rushing yards and 21 total touchdowns. And in Mark Ingram’s Heisman campaign, he totaled 1,399 yards and 12 touchdowns in the same timeframe.

A further sample size of Jeanty’s numbers through 11 games compared to previous Heisman-winning running backs can be seen below.

Jeanty’s season currently has him in the top 20 for most rushing yards in a single college football season, and with two games left, there’s a great chance he finishes in the top 10, possibly passing Derrick Henry’s 2,219-yard mark that he set in 2015.

The Boise State running back is also one trip to the endzone away from tying Henry’s touchdown total during his award-winning year and tying the school record for most touchdowns in a single season, which was set by Jay Ajayi in 2014.

The one point that Jeanty’s detractors make when arguing that he shouldn’t win the Heisman is the lack of competition he plays against, and while those people have a point, they should look at his performance against Oregon, the current No. 1 team in the country, as proof that he can perform against other top-notch talent after finishing the game with 192 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Right now, Colorado’s two-way star Travis Hunter is the odds-on favorite to win the trophy.

Potential first-round draft pick

While Jeanty hasn’t officially declared for the 2025 NFL Draft, the announcement’s inevitability has already spawned countless mock drafts, and most have the star running back landing in a state he has some familiarity with.

According to Sports Illustrated, of the eight analysts who were asked, seven of them believe Jeanty will end up in Texas with America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, while one analyst has the New Orleans Saints taking the star running back.

The draft order hasn’t been established yet, but many seem to think Jeanty will be taken within the top 15 picks, which is somewhat surprising considering all the recent chatter in the NFL about the value of running backs.

Still, the talent is undeniable, and it’s hard to believe that if Jeanty played in a more prominent conference like the SEC or ACC, he’d fall outside the top 8.

NFL fans will have to wait a few more months for Jeanty’s Sunday debut, but in the meantime, they can watch him for a couple more Saturdays as he chases school records, FBS records, and a Heisman trophy.

Jeanty and Boise State (10-1) will be back in action on Friday afternoon with a game against Oregon State.