When I originally thought to create this column, I never would have thought that the title I gave it almost foreshadowed who would win the Heisman Trophy. Now, did I believe that Colorado’s Travis Hunter would win the prestigious award during my first week of this column? I actually did, but that’s not what I am writing about today.
In the final edition of this season’s Hunting the Heisman, we will examine whether the voters made the right choice with Hunter or if Boise State’s running back — and the people’s choice to win the Heisman — Ashton Jeanty should have won the trophy. And after this week’s Peach Bowl, a discussion has to be made about whether the Power Four’s version of Jeanty, human wrecking ball and ASU running back Cam Skattebo, deserved a call to New York.
Hunter finishes the hunt
It was a surprise to nobody that the only two people really in the running were Hunter and Jeanty, and the voting totals accurately reflected that. The two stars accounted for 2,000 points each — Hunter at 2,231 and Jeanty at 2,017 — while the next closest player, Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, sat at 516. For the most part, Hunter received the majority of the first-place votes while Jeanty received a large majority of the second-place votes.
Hunter did deserve to be in New York with his dual-threat capabilities on the field as a wide receiver and defensive back. However, what seems odd is that Hunter won the Bednarik Award for best defensive player, while failing to finish in the top three for the Jim Thorpe Award, which goes to the top defensive back. How can you be the best defensive player if you are not even the best in your position?
Sure, it was a little strict that he wasn’t in the top three, but by no means should he have been the top DB in the nation, nor the top defensive player. There were edge rushers that meant the world to teams and pushed them toward the playoffs and playoff contention — Penn State’s Abdul Carter and Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr. come to mind — while defensive backs Jahdae Barron of Texas, Malakai Starks of Georgia and Caleb Downs of Ohio State each were crucial to their team’s success.
Offensively, Hunter had a significant advantage having Shedeur Sanders as his quarterback, who would feed him on nearly every play. It takes something really absurd for a wide receiver to be nominated, let alone win the Most Valuable Player award, and Hunter’s numbers did not spell out H-E-I-S-M-A-N any way that you tried to look at them.
Yet he won, and his name is stamped in history. Right now it is tough to really say if it was the right decision, but in 10 years’ time, we might be kicking ourselves for not having a Sunday-style running back that almost broke legendary Barry Sanders’ record in the Heisman House.
Jeanty struggles against Penn State
Every hero has their downfall, and for Jeanty, it was being on a Group of Five team that had nobody on their roster.
Jeanty put up astronomical numbers against every non-Power Four team — and the games that he “struggled” in, only garnering 150 yards, he sat for the whole second half. Going into the College Football Playoff, Jeanty and his Broncos only had one loss, which was to the No. 1-seeded Oregon Ducks. In that game, Jeanty had 192 yards on 25 carries with three touchdowns. He was the sole reason that Boise State had a chance to upset the Ducks, ultimately losing on a game-winning 25-yard field goal.
In the second round of the Playoff, Jeanty went up against the Penn State Nittany Lions, a school that is notorious for producing some of the top defensive linemen and linebackers in all of football. As many expected, Penn State stacked the box and made it impossible for Jeanty to do anything, forcing quarterback Maddux Madsen to drop back 35 times and throw three interceptions. There was one point where Jeanty was touched by nine out of 11 Nittany Lion defenders on a single play and still managed to gain nearly 10 yards on the play.
Other than that one run, Jeanty really couldn’t get anything going, but it wasn’t his fault. There is a reason that Penn State is in a conference called the “Power Four” while Boise State is in the “Group of Five,” and that is because the Power Four conferences are just bigger, faster and stronger. He had no blocking protection, and with the limited threat that was their passing game, the Nittany Lion game plan was simple: make Madsen have an all-time performance. Despite his 300 passing yards, Madsen’s three interceptions sure made up for any good that he did.
Speaking of turnovers, Jeanty had two during the game — the same amount he had in all of his other games combined. Whether these were his fault or not, Jeanty had the eyes of everybody on him knowing that he would be the only chance the Broncos would have to beat Penn State. But head coach James Franklin planned well, and his Nittany Lions were ready for the running back on all occasions.
So while it is nice that Jeanty was loyal to Boise State, that same loyalty saw him ultimately lose the Heisman. He will almost certainly make an impact for professional teams with a multi-dimensional offense that requires teams not to solely focus on him, but for this postseason, Jeanty just had to watch the time pass as he was quadruple-teamed wherever he went.
Skattebo makes us question if the voters made the wrong choice
With Hunter, Jeanty, Gabriel and Miami’s quarterback Cam Ward all in New York as Heisman finalists, Cam Skattebo finished fifth and watched from home. The Sun Devil running back put on a performance in the Peach Bowl to say the absolute least, making America question whether he was snubbed from the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Standing at 5-foot-11 — although personally, I think this is an overestimate by multiple inches — Skattebo is what you would expect Jeanty to be if he were on a Power Four squad.
He runs as if he is constantly angry, except he is also dangerous in the passing game as well. And if you thought I meant running routes, you are terribly wrong. What I mean by dangerous in the pass game is Skattebo has an arm. With just under seven minutes to play, down 24-8 against the Texas Longhorns, Skattebo received a pitch from quarterback Sam Leavitt before he dropped back and leaned into a 38-yard bomb of a pass to receiver Malik McClain who would run the remaining 10 yards into the endzone to spark the comeback that ASU needed to force the game into overtime.
Here’s the funniest part: the next day, on the Dan Patrick Show, Skattebo mentioned that wasn’t how the play was written up at all.
“It was actually supposed to be a throw back to the quarterback,” Skattebo said. “I checked my receiver to a fade ball… I looked to [McClain] and it was one-on-one out there. I knew as soon as I caught the ball from the toss that safety would come flying down… I knew we had the better athlete… it was a little underthrown but I guess I put it in a spot only he could get it.”
With a throwing touchdown, two on the ground and 143 yards in 30 touches, the stats sure say a lot about what Skattebo did, but there was a lot that they don’t talk about. During the fourth quarter, the announcers said that Skattebo was “vomiting profusely” on the sideline. After the game, he mentioned it was too much water and a bad breakfast, but he felt much better and proceeded to put on an insane “puke and rally” performance.
It’s surprising he didn’t pick up much more traction than he did. ASU was expected to place dead last in the Big 12, and yet the Sun Devils ended up in the Playoff. He had a 262-yard game early in the season — five yards shy of Jeanty’s top mark of the year — and had more than 150 yards against Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship, a ranked Utah and rival Arizona. He fell only three yards shy of the mark in the team’s upset victory over BYU.
Another running back who might make waves in the NFL, Skattebo was overlooked certainly by me and many other people for the Heisman Trophy. While he should not have won the trophy, he certainly deserves a lot more recognition for his work this season and probably could have fought for a solid third place in New York.