Boise State star Ashton Jeanty preps to face vaunted Penn State defense
Share this post:
There’s been a lot of talk around the challenge Penn State will face in trying to stop Ashton Jeanty in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. Jeanty, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, is the best running back in college football and Boise State’s offensive engine.
But the flipside to the Jeanty storyline is worth discussing, too: the challenge he and the Broncos will face when going up against Penn State’s stout run defense.
Jeanty has put together a legendary season for Boise State. The future first-round pick has racked up 2,497 rushing yards, leaving him 132 yards shy of breaking Barry Sanders’ single-season FBS record. Jeanty is averaging 192.1 yards per game and 7.3 yards per carry. He’s been unstoppable, carving up the Mountain West and earning a first-round CFP bye.
But Jeanty and the Broncos haven’t faced a defense of Penn State’s caliber.
Obviously, the numbers are affected by facing Jeanty. But here’s where Boise State’s FBS opponents rank in yards per carry allowed: UNLV (22nd), San Jose State (22nd), Oregon (54th), Hawai’i (97th), San Diego State (106th), Georgia Southern (108th), Nevada (112th), Washington State (119th), Oregon State (126th), Utah State (127th) and Wyoming (130th).
Meanwhile, Penn State ranks 12th in the FBS in rushing yards per carry allowed (3.11) and seventh nationally in rushing yards allowed per game (100.4).
The Nittany Lions run defense has been reliable this year. The defensive line is nasty, led by Abdul Carter, Dani Dennis-Sutton and a trio of disruptive, physical defensive tackles: Zane Durant, Dvon J-Thomas and Coziah Izzard. Kobe King has been one of the best linebackers in the country against the run. The safety duo of Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatley has provided strong support. Schematically and intangibly, the unit has been tough as nails.
And Jeanty, in his preparations for the CFP quarterfinal, understands that.
“They got some really good players,” Jeanty said at his Fiesta Bowl press conference when asked about Penn State. “Their front seven is elite, great linebackers, great D-line. They do a lot: blitzes, pressures, moving the D-line, stunts, and all that. They’re a single high team. We know for sure we’re going to get some seven, eight-man surfaces. That’s just natural from all the defenses we’ve seen. But we’re going to have to play a great game.
“… For me, I want to play against the best of the best competition. This is the biggest platform to do that in college football right now, against one of the best teams in the nation.”
We’ll see which wins out — one of the best offensive players or one of the best defenses in college football — on New Year’s Eve.
Penn State and Boise State will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, playing for a spot in the CFP semifinals. The game will air on ESPN.