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

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

He was best known for his monstrous height (6 feet 2 inches, 220 pounds) combined with his surprisingly blistering speed (4.54 40-yard dash), which enabled him to achieve such feats during his three-year tenure as a member of the Crimson Tide and ultimately won the prestigious Heisman Trophy, becoming the first running back to do so since 2009, when his Crimson Tide colleague Mark Ingram took home the award.

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

Rise to stardom

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

After traveling across the United States, including Georgia, Virginia and Texas, Jeanty began his soccer career across the Atlantic in Naples, Italy, where high school football coach Jim Davis recognized Jeanty’s potential.

“He makes a layup and gets so high that I think this kid is 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 further his soccer career. In his senior season at Lone Star High School in Frisco, he ran for over 1,800 yards and scored 41 total touchdowns.

While these numbers don’t rival Derrick Henry’s astonishing season of 4,000-plus yards and 50-plus touchdowns at Yulee High School in his senior year, they are still exceptional.

Unfortunately, Jeanty’s production didn’t lead to 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 was the only school that did If he took the risk he wouldn’t regret it.

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

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

But from the first carry of his junior year, Jeanty played like a player with something to prove, and his efforts could earn 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, in 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 over the same period.

Another sample of Jeanty’s 11-game numbers 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 strong chance he finishes in the top 10, potentially surpassing Derrick Henry’s in the surpasses the mark of 2,219 yards set in 2015.

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

The only point Jeanty’s critics cite when they argue he shouldn’t win the Heisman is the lack of competition he’s playing against, and while those people are right, they should look at his performance against Oregon, the current team No. 1 in the country as proof that he can hold his own against other top-tier talent after finishing the game with 192 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Currently, Colorado’s two-way star Travis Hunter is the favorite to win the trophy.

Possible first round draft pick

Although Jeanty hasn’t officially declared for the 2025 NFL Draft yet, the inevitability of the announcement has already led to countless mock drafts, and in most of them the star running back ends up in a state he’s somewhat familiar with.

According to Sports Illustrated, seven of the eight analysts surveyed believe that Jeanty will end up with the American team, the Dallas Cowboys, in Texas, while one analyst believes that the New Orleans Saints will acquire the star running back.

The draft order has not yet been determined, but many seem to believe Jeanty will be taken in the top 15, which is somewhat surprising given the recent discussions in the NFL about the value of running backs.

Still, the talent is undeniable and it’s hard to believe that if Jeanty were in a more prominent conference like the SEC or ACC, he would fall out of the top eight.

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

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