In what should be a surprise to no one, Ashton Jeanty won the Doak Walker Award for the nation’s best running back.
ASHTON JEANTY IS THE TOP BACK IN THE COUNTRY
He’s awarded the 2024 Doak Walker Award as he becomes the first FBS player with 2,000 Rush yds and 25 Rush TD in a season since 2015 pic.twitter.com/wv8LLaw3mA
— ESPN (@espn) December 13, 2024
In a mild surprise, following a string of Travis Hunter awards, Jeanty also won the Maxwell Award.
Jeanty had a memorable season and one of the best ever for a running back, which everyone who follows college football should about him and everything he accomplished.
The Mountain West had several award semi-finalists and a few award finalists. Aaron detailed the cases of all of them in his Wednesday post, which was an excellent read.
Fortunately, Jeanty won two of the three awards he was nominated for, although it appears he will finish second in the Heisman voting, which will be announced on Saturday.
Expectations are a funny thing. Back in August, if someone were to say: “Would you be content with the Mountain West Conference having award finalists for six different awards?”, the answer would undoubtedly be yes. Fair or not, for the Group of 5, or really for any college football player, being an award finalist is a huge accomplishment. After all, many players have strong seasons and only one player can win at the end of the day. It’s a huge deal for the players and the conference.
On the other hand, only winning two of the six awards leaves fans wanting more. Now that the awards are here, being a finalist doesn’t seem like enough, especially when players had such tremendous seasons. Without going into the full debate, Jeanty and Hunter are two players who would be the unquestioned Heisman winner in most seasons and they happen to both be playing in 2024, where only one can win.
Woodard went from unknown walk-on buried on the Arkansas depth chart to the leader of a strong defense, posted back-to-back 100 tackle seasons and raised his game this year to include more tackles for loss and interceptions to become the first non-pass-rusher to win Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year in six seasons. Nick Nash, who was a quarterback who converted to a wide receiver, stepped up his game to become a dynamic wide receiver who lead the nation in catches, yards, and touchdowns. And neither of them won their awards.
Maybe they should have won, maybe they shouldn’t. Being a finalist is an honor, but falling short does sting a bit. The Mountain West had a ton of talent this season and got some recognition but it also felt like they could have gotten more. Actually, they have faired well during award season the past few years, with players taking home the Mackey (2021), Guy (2021) and Thorpe (2023).
Jackson Woodard had an improbable college career that he can hopefully carry over to the next level.
Nick Nash was willing to change positions, not transfer, and improve his game at a new position to the point where he was one of the best in the entire nation.
Ashton Jeanty passed up a ton of money and likely offers from any school in the country to stay at the place that recruited him when very few others did, with teammates and a coach he enjoyed being around in a town he wanted to give back to in order to accomplish something special.
Not every story has a Cinderella ending, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have meaning. In fact, the heart of college football (when people can stop to remember) is that the players, teams, and stories are more important than being crowned the one champion to rule them all. A season can be special even if it’s not considered the best season. And these players have lasting memories after making an impact, regardless of the trophies they did or didn’t take home.
