(Heisman Trophy Trust)

From Wire Reports

In no surprise to anyone who’s paid attention to college football this season, Boise State junior running back Ashton Jeanty was named a Heisman Trophy finalist on Monday night.

Jeanty was announced as a finalist for the prestigious award during ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” show. He’ll be heading to New York City for the Heisman ceremony on Saturday night alongside Colorado’s two-way star, Travis Hunter; Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel; and Miami quarterback Cam Ward.

The Heisman finalists are determined by who received the most points from the 928 voters: 870 media members, 57 living Heisman winners, and one fan vote. Voting closed Monday ahead of the announcement on ESPN.

The Heisman has been awarded to the nation’s most outstanding college football player since 1935.

The Heisman Trophy ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. CT Saturday on ESPN. Jeanty is the second finalist in school history — quarterback Kellen Moore was a finalist in 2010 and finished fourth in the voting. Moore also was in the top 10 in voting in 2009 and 2011.

Jeanty, who leads the nation’s rushers with 2,497 yards and 29 touchdowns, enters the ceremony as the second-favorite at +1000, behind only Hunter (-2500), according to oddsmakers.

Jeanty’s campaign began on his first carry of the season in August in Statesboro, Ga. Breaking free of a few Georgia Southern tacklers, he gave fans a preview of what they’d see in 2024 with a 77-yard touchdown run and a Heisman pose to cap it off.

“I just told myself whenever I made a big play, some type of play that proves that I’m that caliber player, you knew I was going to pull that (celebration) out,” Jeanty said after the victory.

Jeanty continued to prove he was that caliber of player throughout the season, leading Boise State to its first-ever College Football Playoff berth and a first-round bye as the No. 3 seed.

He rushed for 267 yards in that first game and put together five more 200-yard games, including last Friday in the Mountain West title game, when he rushed for 209. He averaged 7.3 yards per carry, and his lowest single-game output of the season was 127 yards on just 11 carries against Portland State — when he played only the first half.

“I don’t think it should be close,” Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said Sunday about the Heisman voting. “I know I’m biased; I’m around him every day. But (he should win) for what he’s done personally, what he’s willed our team to do as our top leader.”

Jeanty is officially only 132 yards from beating Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record of 2,628 yards, but that requires elaboration. In Sanders’ Heisman-winning season at Oklahoma State in 1988, he did not get to count his 222-yard effort in the Holiday Bowl under NCAA rules at the time. That would have given him 2,850 yards.

Sanders also amassed the 2,628 total in just 11 games, whereas Jeanty has played 13 games already — though he sat out the second halves of two games. Jeanty is averaging 192.1 yards per game, meaning a typical performance in the Fiesta Bowl would allow him to set the new record.

Regardless, if Jeanty does not win, he will have put together the most prolific season for a non-Heisman-winning running back in NCAA history.

Ward, who transferred to Miami after spending his first two college football seasons at FCS level Incarnate Word and then two more at Washington State, had a record-setting year in his lone campaign with the Hurricanes. He set the single-season school records for passing yards (4,123) and touchdowns (36). His 67.4 percent completion rate stands to be the UM single-season and career record as well (Tyler Van Dyke holds both of those marks — 63.7 percent for his career, 65.8 percent in the 2023 season).

Hunter, who played wide receiver and cornerback for Colorado, finished second nationally with 14 receiving touchdowns and sixth with 1,152 receiving yards while also recording four interceptions and 11 pass breakups on defense.

Gabriel has completed 73.2 percent of his passes for 3,558 yards and 28 touchdowns while leading Oregon to a perfect 13-0 record heading into the College Football Playoff.

The only other players in UM history to ever win the Heisman Trophy were Vinny Testeverde in 1986 and Gino Toretta in 1992.

Hunter is just the third player in CU history to secure a finish among the Heisman’s top four finalists. Halfback Byron “Whizzer” White wound up second in the 1937 ballot. In 1989, CU sent two finalists to the Big Apple — tailback Eric Bieniemy was third while QB Darian Hagan was fifth.

Buffs tailback Rashaan Salaam won the award in 1994, becoming the first — and, to date, only — CU player to do so.

Gabriel is the fifth Heisman Trophy finalist in Oregon history, joining Joey Harrington (2001), LaMichael James (2010), Marcus Mariota (2014, winner) and Bo Nix (2023).