Ashton Jeanty drafted 6th is ‘culture changing’ for Boise State running backs
Boise State running backs coach James Montgomery remembers the first time he saw Ashton Jeanty play.
Montgomery was standing on the sidelines at Albertsons Stadium watching a plucky freshman bounce off about six would-be tacklers before drifting out of bounds. Wearing a No. 2 blue jersey that matched the turf beneath his feet, this freshman yelled out at the cheering crowd and flashed two large biceps that fans would become very familiar with over the next few years.
“Who is this guy?” Montgomery wondered.
It was, of course, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
Montgomery was the running backs coach at Fresno State at the time, and he watched Jeanty record the first 100-yard game of his college career as Boise State beat Fresno State 40-20 in October 2022. Jeanty ended the game with 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
Just three months later, Montgomery found himself at Boise State as the new RB coach, overseeing a player he couldn’t believe was a freshman.
“I just wanted to make him the best football player he could be,” Montgomery told reporters Thursday. “I already knew he had the talent and the ability, the God-given gift. So I just wanted to make sure, from the neck up, I made him as good as he could be.”
Montgomery didn’t do too bad of a job. Jeanty became the assistant coach’s first-ever first-round pick on Thursday night at the NFL Draft when the Las Vegas Raiders drafted Jeanty with the No. 6 overall pick. Simultaneously, Jeanty became the highest draft pick in Boise State history.
Players and coaches gathered in Boise State’s team room at the Bleymaier Football Center to watch the draft, which was being televised from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and historic Lambeau Field. Players tallied on a whiteboard at the front of the room which team they thought would nab Jeanty — and most correctly picked the Raiders.
Others thought the Chicago Bears or Jacksonville Jaguars might make a move to take the top running back in the draft.
“Just like everybody in the room, when I saw the Raiders coming up at six, I knew there was a high possibility,” Montgomery said. “But I’m still shaken a little bit.”
Jeanty is among a list of elite running backs to come out of Boise State, including the likes of Doug Martin, Jay Ajayi and Alexander Mattison. Several members of what hopes to be the next class of greatness were in attendance for Thursday night’s draft, including redshirt freshman Sire Gaines and junior Jambres Dubar.
It would be an understatement to say Gaines was excited — he’s a Raiders fan, and his favorite player of all time is Bo Jackson, even though the two-sport superstar played long before Gaines was born. Jackson was selected No. 1 overall in 1986 out of Auburn and was dominant in the NFL before an injury in 1991 cut his football career short.
Gaines wasn’t afraid to highlight the similarities between Jeanty and Jackson.
“Speed and power, running through a face … and just be relentless,” Gaines said. “Overall physicality, you know, bring physicality back to football, and that’s what we’ve been producing.”
Beyond his excitement with Jeanty going to the Raiders, Gaines acknowledged that the Heisman Trophy runner-up has “changed the game” for running backs.
Jeanty became the highest-drafted running back since Saquon Barkley went No. 2 overall in 2018. It was Barkley’s historic 2,000-yard season in 2024 that helped the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl, and his excellence, along with that of Derrick Henry in Baltimore, showed that the NFL can still be a league that relies on the run.
Jeanty became just the eighth running back to be taken in the first round since Barkley in 2018.
“Ashton Jeanty going sixth in the NFL Draft, that’s even more amazing as a running back,” Gaines said. “Now, look at us. Now he’s gonna set all the running backs up for success, it’s culture changing.”
