Friday Heisman watch party … The really big college football games with national playoff implications this weekend, including traditional rivalries like Ohio State-Michigan and Texas-Texas A&M, don’t come up until Saturday. However, folks will get a chance to compare and contrast arguably the two top Heisman candidates in early games on Friday afternoon. One of those features Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty (#2, 5-9, 215) when the 11th ranked Broncos host 5-6 Oregon State on the blue field at Noon on FOX. For those that don’t follow college football all that closely, Jeanty has had a truly remarkable season in which he has already run for over 2,000 yards and 25 TDs on the ground; in fact, Jeanty has more rushing yards AFTER contact than any other back has overall and is being looked at currently as a potential top 10-20 prospect for 2025. At the same time, Broncos’ DE Ahmed Hassanein (#91, 6-2, 275), who has 8.5 sacks on the campaign, has started to show up with a more than draftable grade on boards around the NFL. For its part, Oregon State has had something of a rough go of it this after being orphaned as a result of the demise of the PAC-12, but they could at least be draft-eligible with an upset win over BSU. And the Beavers have at least one quality prospect in star OG Joshua Gray (367, 6-3, 310) who could get some AA props when those teams are announced early next month.
In fact, it seems to be pretty clear that the only player who could deprive Jeanty the Heisman is two-way Colorado star Travis Hunter (#12, 6-1, 185), who could quite conceivably be named to some All-America teams as both a WR and CB. Hunter and his Colorado mates including QB Shedeur Sanders also close out there regular schedule at Noon ET on Friday against Oklahoma State. For the record, both Hunter and Sanders have been mentioned as possible #1 picks overall this coming April.And speaking of comps with Jeanty, it was kind of thought that if any back was capable of rushing for over 2,000 yards this season it was probably Ollie Gordon (#0, 6-1, 225) of Oklahoma State who led the country with over 1,700 last fall. However, Gordon has never really gotten it going this fall as he has been in and out of the lineup with assorted injuries, but he appears to be finally healthy and does still have a chance to hit the century mark in 2024. Overall, though, it has been a disappointing year for the 3-8 Cowboys who entered the year with high hopes but are actually winless in the conference. It certainly didn’t help that star LBs Nick Martin and Collin Oliver have barely played because of injuries.
