“Ashton Jeanty Is Not a Victim”: Jason Whitlock, Who Claimed Travis Hunter Ruined His Career by Joining Forces With Deion Sanders, Reacts to His Heisman Win

After spending the last two seasons criticizing Travis Hunter for joining an FCS school (JSU) under Deion Sanders and then moving to Colorado, veteran journalist Jason Whitlock seems to have had a change of heart.

Ever since Travis Hunter’s Heisman win, a significant portion of the internet feels cheated because they believe Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty should have been the winner. Their argument is simple — the last time an RB ran for 2219 yards [Derrick Henry] in a season, he won the Heisman.

Ashton Jeanty, meanwhile, finished the 2024 season with 2,497 receiving yards, but still finished second. This is where Jason Whitlock disagrees.

According to the former columnist, what worked for Travis was his rare trait of being a two-way player. In Whitlock’s opinion, there will never be a player again who will dominate two positions at the All-Conference level as Travis did.

At the same time, Whitlock urged netizens not to paint Jeanty as a victim but to instead express their pride in him. In his eyes, Ashton going neck and neck in the Heisman race despite not being in a power conference is an insane achievement.

Netizens, however, were split into two sides after reading Whitlock’s take — pro and anti-Travis. The ones who backed Travis as the Heisman winner tried to pacify the situation by noting that both Hunter and Jeanty were deserving winners.

And as Whitlock and countless others pointed out, it’s Hunter’s ability to be a two-way player capable of being a top-20 player in both the WR and CB positions that swung the tide in his favor.

The other half, meanwhile, had a fairly straightforward reasoning — Hunter wasn’t even in the top 5 for both WR and CB positions. In contrast, Jeanty had one of the greatest seasons ever for a running back in college football. To them, being the best in one position was much more significant than being competent in two positions.

At the end of the day, picking the Heisman winner this year was all about perspective. It was about picking someone who was best in his position versus picking someone who is two players rolled into one. As we now know, the jury voted for the latter and that’s fair enough.

The real battle for both players, however, awaits them in the NFL next season. If they replicate their CFB exploits in the big league, their Heisman trophy (win or nomination) would be the last thing on their resume.