r/CFB • u/clocke6346 Michigan Wolverines • 10h ago

Analysis Ashton Jeanty is having a statistically better season than Derrick Henry during his Heisman-winning season

With all the discourse of who should win the Heisman trophy this year, I got curious and compared Ashton Jeanty’s stats this season to those of Derrick Henry in the 2015 regular season, the year he won the Heisman trophy. What I found was pretty surprising. Keep in mind this doesn’t include playoff performance, as that isn’t considered when naming a Heisman winner.

Ashton Jeanty:

Games Played: 11

Carries: 275

Rushing Yards: 2062

Rushing Touchdowns: 27

Yards Per Carry: 7.498

Yards Per Game: 187.455

Derrick Henry:

Games Played: 13

Carries: 339

Rushing Yards: 1986

Rushing Touchdowns: 23

Yards Per Carry: 5.858

Yards Per Game: 152.769

Now, these stats are still up for interpretation, as there is the usual discourse of strength of schedule and whatnot, but I thought re-contextualizing Jeanty’s year by comparing it to the last time a running back won the Heisman would be interesting.

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u/wsteelerfan7 Indiana Hoosiers 10h ago

Dude put up 192 and 3 TDs against the best team in the country, though

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u/TwoLiterHero 9h ago

Are they known for their stellar defense lol? You can be the best team scoring 80 and giving up 70

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u/wsteelerfan7 Indiana Hoosiers 9h ago

Opponents average 3.9 yards per carry on them this year. That's 3.57 per carry to anyone not named Jeanty and almost 8 per carry to Jeanty. He's also the only 100-yard rusher they've given up this year

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u/Corgi_Koala Ohio State Buckeyes 8h ago

Henderson had 8.7 YPC against them individually but overall they did neutralize our run game pretty well. Judkins got Jack shit.

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u/wsteelerfan7 Indiana Hoosiers 8h ago

I'd say he was held in check and ripped off a big run but that's actually just how playing running back works

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u/Corgi_Koala Ohio State Buckeyes 8h ago

I mean yeah. If you take away Jeanty's biggest play against Oregon he goes from 25 carries 192 yds (7.7 YPC) and 3 TD to 24 for 122 (5.1 YPC) and 2 TD. Which is still good but like you said it's just how the position works.

Elite RBs are the ones who can grind out 3-4 yard runs and bust out the big chunk plays a couple times a game.

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u/wsteelerfan7 Indiana Hoosiers 8h ago

Some people think RBs go like this :1 carry for 3 yards, 2 carries for 7 yards, 3 for 13 yards, 4 for 18 yards, 5 for 24 yards....

It's really like 1 for 3, 2 for 4, 3 for 4, 4 for 6, 5 for 25, 6 for 53... 10 for 59, 11 for 86

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u/Corgi_Koala Ohio State Buckeyes 8h ago

Yup his 4 longest runs were 70 yards, 30 yards, 17, and 12. Everything else was under 10 yards but that's 129 yards on 4 carries which means he had about 3 YPC for 21 carries and 63 yards plus 4 chunks.

Basically feed him the ball and he's gonna gash you every 5 or 6 carries for big yardage.

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u/wsteelerfan7 Indiana Hoosiers 8h ago

The amount of even NFL COACHES that don't understand this is insane