His fame and ‘legacy’ growing, Boise State’s Jeanty doesn’t want to be ‘Hollywood’
Imagine this scenario:
You’re in college and just got assigned to a group project in one of your classes. You scan over the list of names. Maybe you’ll get lucky and one of your friends will be in the group.
But as it turns out, one name stands out on the list: Ashton Jeanty.
This scenario is easy to imagine for some Boise State students.
Jeanty is working on such an assignment right now, he told reporters during a press conference Wednesday. So a handful of students walking around campus will sit down sometime this week to work on a project with a guy who’s attempting to become one of the greatest college running backs of all time.
Jeanty is followed on social media by the likes of ESPN personality Pat McAfee and NBA star Kevin Durant, and he reportedly earns six figures in Name, Image and Likeness money. He’s become the Heisman Trophy favorite with a spectacular first half of the season that sees him leading the nation in rushing (1,248 yards).
All of this can make it tough to remember that Jeanty is just a 20-year-old college kid — who often looks like a man among boys on the field.
In his downtime, he plays Call of Duty and EA College Football 25 with his roommates, and enjoys chilling with his 8-month-old Pudelpointer puppy, Coco.
But it’s not easy for Jeanty to be just a regular college student. The school hasn’t seen this kind of hype around a player since quarterback Kellen Moore was a star for the Broncos more than a decade ago, and Jeanty has become, well, famous.
“I’m not gonna lie, I don’t really walk around campus anymore because a lot of people will come up to me,” he said Wednesday. “Not that I’m trying to be ‘Hollywood’ or anything like that. But some days, you just want your peace, and you just want to be to yourself.”
That said, Jeanty loves being at Boise State. Even when there was a coaching change last year, and top-10 programs were wagging NIL money under his nose, according to The Athletic, Jeanty stuck with the Broncos.
Throughout the offseason, he became closer with first-year head coach Spencer Danielson, the team’s former defensive coordinator. The pair began attending church together on Sundays, and in August, Danielson baptized Jeanty in front of numerous teammates.
Their relationship could be the biggest reason why Jeanty didn’t bolt for the bright lights of the SEC or Big Ten after a sophomore season that saw him win Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year.
“(Danielson) changed the team, not just from a football standpoint but from a faith standpoint,” Jeanty said.
“He’s helped me grow so much tremendously off the field. I think the football is great, but just how I’ve been able to grow as a person, as a man, off the field because of him. All the things that he’s teaching us each and every single day will take us a lot further than football ever will.”
If you ask Danielson about Jeanty, his thoughts typically go along the lines of “he’s a great football player, but he’s an even greater person.”
Earlier this season, Jeanty talked with Fox Sports analyst and former Boise State coach Chris Petersen about why he chose to stay at Boise State.
“Money is great, money is cool. But a legacy, an impact, that lasts forever,” Jeanty told Petersen.
And now he has added to that legacy.
If anyone wondered about Jeanty’s ability to put his money where his mouth is, he did it earlier this week. On Monday evening, he launched the Ashton Jeanty Endowed Scholarship for Football, which aims to raise money for future student-athletes to attend and play football at Boise State.
The fund has a goal of $200,000, and by Wednesday afternoon — just 48 hours after its launch — it had raised over $64,000, including an initial $2,000 donation from Jeanty.
Danielson said Wednesday that Jeanty did not discuss creating the fund with the coaching staff — it was simply his idea. Jeanty said he wanted to start the fund because he’s already seen how much college has helped him grow as a person and affected his life.
“Being able to give that opportunity to other students, just realizing how expensive life and college are, I know so many people with student debt,” Jeanty said. “To be able to help the young generation, my generation right now, go to school and get a degree, not on their own dime, I think it’s just a blessing.”
UNLV vs. Boise State
When: 8:30 p.m. Mountain time Friday
Where: Allegiant Stadium
TV: CBS Sports Network (Rich Waltz, Robert Turbin, Tiffany Blackmon)
Radio: KBOI 670 AM and KBOI 93.1 FM/Sirius XM Ch. 162 or 201 (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)
Records: Boise State 5-1, 2-0; UNLV 6-1, 2-0
Series: Boise State leads the series 9-3
Vegas line: Boise State by 3.5 points
Weather: Indoor arena
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 5:47 PM.
