Ashton Jeanty will make you fall in love with football again

Ashton Jeanty takes over the handover.

(Play “Lacrimosa” Through Whispers, you watch the universe bubble and the sky form.)

Bodies, bodies, bodies fall to the grass. The failed defenders, their face masks down, look up long enough to see Jeanty leaving them behind. There he goes, into the wild blue over there. There he is, on the way to the six. This has happened before, and it will happen again. Inevitability is a monster truck. It roars until it scores.

Boise State's junior running back has moved into the top tier of Heisman Trophy contenders through his first five games of the 2024 college football season. He did this based on absurd numbers and even more absurd highlights. He has, wide-eyed, passed for 1,031 yards and 16 touchdowns while averaging 10.9 yards per carry. He leads the Football Bowl Subdivision in each of those categories, and his stats would be even better if he didn't sit out the second half of two losses. Still, Jeanty is on pace to break Barry Sanders' 1988 single-season rushing record of 2,628 yards. When you're a running back with numbers on par with Oklahoma State Barry's, you're about to do something wild.

Jeanty is a stormy ball carrier. Runs really thunderously. A catastrophic boom as he meets would-be tacklers. Lava pours out of his ears and causes the stands to explode. The man is volcanic.

Modern offense is largely about outsmarting the defense. The quarterback is king and the schematic magic is queen. The running back fades into the background. Confusion is key. The goal is to turn the defense around and find a receiver without a defender within 10 yards. This offensive development is understandable, but it can lead to fans not understanding what happened.

With Jeanty and the 4-1 Broncos, sports don't feel like homework. They have turned back the clock and brought football back to its essence, which is all about running the ball. Boise State isn't trying to trick you. It is open with its intentions. Jeanty goes above and beyond to light up the game plan. He makes it operatic, shakes the camera, makes the basics beautiful.

“We're going to line up, we're going to run the ball,” Jeanty said after rushing for 259 yards and four touchdowns in a 45-24 win over Washington State in September. “You’ll know we’re going to run the ball, we’re going to keep getting yards and we’re going to make you stop.”

There is something romantic about the running back hero. There's something magical about a player who can go the distance every time he touches the ball. Something to make you name the greats: Bo Jackson. Adrian Peterson. Earl Campbell. Tony Dorsett. Something that makes you want to pause the TV, rewind it, and call your friends into the room. Something that makes you say, “Man, see on this shit.”

Jeanty's feet are true miracles. Give him the ball and watch him run across the water. Full of madness, stroke and raging rage, he hits the hole. Wild and flowing. No wasted movement. He throws himself over the defenders as if he were personally insulted that anyone would be stupid enough to get in his way. It's built like a storm shelter, like a javelin, like the brand new Ford F-150. You better hit him deep and finish, otherwise he'll bounce off you like a bad check and take him into the house.

He has the vision, the volatility, the patience, the hezzies, the bunnies, the jets. He is in the open field Skating. The trailer is uncoupled and the truck is just a blur. Jeanty rips pieces out of the defense. He makes a little jump cut in the hole and then starts throwing punches. A cartoon of a runner dishing out Schwarzenegger's stiff-arms. Has so many broken tackles that you just have to start laughing. Broadcasts that cause announcers to say things like, “Ashton Jeanty breaks a tackle in the backfield because of course he does.” That would elevate Chris Berman to a higher level.

“I just go into dark mode,” Jeanty said.

(Play Carter Burwell's “Way Out There” out of Raising Arizonajump to the 1:16 mark and yodel with all your heart.)

What Jeanty brings is spectacle and cinema, shock and awe. Witness him booking it as HI McDunnough holds freshly stolen Huggies. Like the roadrunner racing through the desert with Wile E. Coyote's weapons. Jeanty is the gas station dispute It's a crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world manifested. When he finishes a defense, he leaves nothing but smoldering rubble behind. Broadcasts should show his games in IMAX.

Boise State has a nice tradition at running back. Ian Johnson, Jay Ajayi and Doug Martin were all top-notch defenders who created magic during their time in the City of Trees. However, Jeanty is something different. He's looking at dates and won't stop until he's caught the attention of the entire nation. He apparently received multiple six-figure zero offers from power conference schools looking to poach him this offseason and turned them all down. This is a player with conviction, someone who finishes what he starts.

Two quads to rule them all. Quads made of Megalon and gold. Mini fridge quads full of hate and ambition. The outbreak is rare. Balance is rare. The cuts are rare. He bucks defenders like he's Bryan Lyndon's horse. Turns the blue lawn into an oceanic playground full of obscenities.

He makes you feel bad about defending. It reminds you what it felt like to fall in love with football in the first place. He is past, present and future at the same time. When it's on, it's the best show on the planet, the only thing that matters. Ashton Jeanty takes over the handover. Yeehaw.