Ashton Jeanty rushed for 209 yards on 32 carries to move into fourth place on the FBS single-season rushing list and No. 10 Boise State clinched a playoff spot with a 21-7 victory over visiting No. 20 UNLV in the Mountain West title contest on Friday night.
Jeanty scored on a 75-yard run while recording his sixth 200-yard outing of the season in his final bid to impress Heisman Trophy voters. Colorado receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter is considered to be the favorite.
The victory gives Boise State (12-1) automatic entry into the 12-team College Football Playoff. One spot goes to the highest-rated conference champion outside of the power 4 conferences.
The Broncos were projected to receive a first-round bye into the quarterfinals in the latest unveiling on Tuesday.
Boise State’s Maddux Madsen completed 18 of 27 passes for 158 yards and one touchdown. He also ran for a score.
Greg Burrell rushed for a touchdown for UNLV (10-3), which had its school-record eight-game road winning streak halted.
The Rebels now await their bowl destination and will have one more chance at tying the Randall Cunningham-led 1984 team (11-2) for most wins in program history. However, all of the victories from 1984 were later vacated.
Jeanty finished the night with 2,497 rushing yards, and passed Marcus Allen (2,342 yards in 1981 for Southern California) to become No. 4 on the list.
Jeanty is now 131 yards behind all-time leader Barry Sanders (2,628 in 1988) of Oklahoma State. Bowl games didn’t count in stats when Sanders played — he had 222 in the Holiday Bowl for a 12-game total of 2,850.
Jeanty also trails Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon (2,587 in 2014) and UCF’s Kevin Smith (2,567 in 2007).
Jeanty also became Boise State’s all-time career rusher, passing Cedric Minter (4,550 from 1977-80).
UNLV averted the shutout when Burrell took a fourth-and-1 handoff and burst up the middle for a 31-yard touchdown with 9:06 left in the contest.
Hajj-Malik Williams was 13-of-28 passing for 110 yards and one interception for the Rebels.
Jeanty exploded for his 75-yard scoring run with 29 seconds left in the first half to give the Broncos a 21-0 lead. He broke Jett Elad’s attempted tackle at the Boise State 37, navigated to his right and headed down the sideline for his 10th touchdown run of 50 or more yards this season.
The Broncos’ first touchdown came on Madsen’s 22-yard pinpoint scoring throw to Latrell Caples with 3:51 left in the opening quarter.
Boise State made it 14-0 when Madsen scrambled for a 14-yard touchdown with 2:40 remaining in the first half.
–Field Level Media