We won’t have a Group of Five Heisman Trophy winner after all.
Colorado wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday evening over Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
It’s impressive Jeanty was even in the conversation as a G5 player.
Jeanty, a 5-foot-9, 215-pound junior who went to high school at Lone Star High School in Texas, opened the season with 267 rushing yards and six touchdowns – four in the first half alone – in Week 1 against Georgia Southern. Both were single-game BSU records.
At one point, he became the betting favorite at BetMGM to win the Heisman until Hunter later was.
Jeanty is just 131 rushing yards away from breaking the FBS single-season record set by Barry Sanders in 1988. He’s first in the FBS with 2,497 rushing yards and is tied with Army’s Bryson Daily for first in the country with 29 rushing touchdowns.
He’s also caught 20 passes for 116 yards and one touchdown while averaging 7.3 yards per rush. He has 1,889 rushing yards after contact, according to Pro Football Focus, and averages 5.48 yards after contact per attempt.
En route to breaking several school records, he led Boise State (12-1) to a Mountain West Championship and a College Football Playoff berth, the Broncos’ first in the team’s history. They have a bye during the first round and will face the winner of Penn State and SMU in the Fiesta Bowl, which will also be a quarterfinal game in the CFP.
Earlier this week, Jeanty won the Doak Walker Award, which goes to the best running back in the nation, as well as the Maxwell Award, which recognizes college football’s best overall player.
Hunter is second in the nation with 14 touchdown catches and sixth with 1,152 receiving yards. He also led Colorado with four interceptions on defense. He won the Chuck Bednarik Award, which recognizes the top defensive player in the country, earlier this week. He also earned the Biletnikoff Award, which goes to the country’s best wideout.
Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel and Miami quarterback Cam Ward were also Heisman finalists.
Who’s The Last Group of Five Player To Win The Heisman Trophy?
Roger Staubach was the last player from a team currently in the Group of Five to win the Heisman Trophy when he did so with Navy back in 1963.
Others have won it when their teams weren’t in a league that’s considered a “power” conference today. Ty Detmer is the most recent example of that. He won the Heisman in 1990 as the quarterback for BYU, which was in the Western Athletic Conference at the time but is now in the Big 12.
Who’s The Last Non-Quarterback To Win The Heisman Trophy?
Devonta Smith, a wide receiver at Alabama, won the Heisman four years ago in 2020. He was only one of four receivers to ever win the award.
Smith was also one of four non-quarterbacks to win the Heisman since 1999 before this week.
Since the award was first given out back in 1935, 38 quarterbacks have won the Heisman. Running backs lead the way with 40 Heisman winners, and that’s not including the two fullbacks and two halfbacks which have also won the trophy. Two tight ends have earned the award as well.
