Penn State has immense respect for Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty but by New Year’s Eve, had grown tired of hearing about him.
Perhaps that’s why, after Penn State’s 31-14 Fiesta Bowl/College Football Playoff quarterfinal win over Boise State, sixth-year defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas was heard yelling two words while going to the locker room.
“Jeanty who?”
Dvon J-Thomas exiting with former teammates PJ Mustipher and Jesse Luketa.
“Jeanty who?” J-Thomas yelled as he walked off pic.twitter.com/kf56pZQ0sC
— Lyle Alenstein (@LAlenstein) January 1, 2025
TAKING IT PERSONALLY
To be clear, Penn State has all the respect in the world for Jeanty.
That’s not the typical “respect every opponent” cliche, either.
Jeanty has all the respect in the world because he’s earned it.
He came into the Penn State game with video-game numbers: 2,497 yards and 29 touchdowns on 344 carries. He needed 132 yards to break Barry Sanders’ single-season NCAA record, and his season-low was 127.
So that’s why, while 104 yards would be a career day for plenty of backs, Penn State was proud to hold Jeanty to 104.
It was his lowest total of the year.
“I mean, look, Jeanty is an incredible running back,” J-Thomas, who ended the night with four tackles (two solo) and a tackle for loss, said in the lockerroom postgame. “He was also a Heisman candidate. We can’t look past him. We had immense respect for Jeanty. The entire week, we kept hearing ‘Jeanty this, Jeanty this, Jeanty this.’ The quarterback, their coach, they’re talking about how we are up front, it’s going to be a challenge for us, etcetera, etcetera, and I think we took that personally. Going into this game and going out of it, 100 yards is just a testament to our defense. So, I was kind of on Cloud 10, but at the same time, I’m just excited and glad that we’re able to showcase our run-stopping ability and how good we actually are.”
For fellow DT Zane Durant, the way Boise State’s offense operates is similar to how other teams in the Big Ten do it.
“The way they scheme, they play similar to teams we played in the Big Ten,” Durant said. “The style of running they do, we’ve played to course, so we kind of had an idea on how to stop him.”
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Penn State coach James Franklin corrected a reporter when he said Penn State “sort of corralled” Jeanty.
“I think we did corral him,” Franklin said in his postgame presser. “Not “sort of.” I think we did corral. They got some yards there at the end. And I think defensively, I think our team was sick of me talking about him. I think we got the point across about the respect that we have for that young man and the type of running back he is. Even today, I think our defense would say they have a ton of respect for him and how many tackles he was able to break and how strong he is and the contact balance. He’s an impressive guy.”
Franklin feels Penn State’s defense is impressive, too.
“Thought our D-line did a really good job of being disruptive and getting in the backfield. I thought we did a really good job gang-tackling. There were a few times when we didn’t wrap like we should have. But for the most part, our defense played lights out. It was numbers in the box. Obviously being able to play man coverage also helps with that, because you’re able to drop a safety down there and get an extra man to add numbers. But really good back. We made them earn it today.”
One more thing:
“I think the other thing that our guys have heard about is the records that he had a chance to break today, too. It was a highly motivated group.”
Sanders can thank Penn State’s 1-0 mentality for keeping his record alive.
“It’s the respect factor,” J-Thomas said. “Coach Franklin does an incredible job of that. Coming into this game, I feel like everybody kind of downplays Boise and said, ‘oh they only have Jeanty, blah blah blah. Well, to be honest with you, we went into the game, we understand that if we let him get going if we let their offense get going, that extra momentum, it’s going to be a different story. We came out, we had it on our mind that ‘oh, he’s going to (try to) break the record tonight.’ That (wasn’t) going to happen.”
You’re welcome OG that record staying home🙏🏽 @BarrySanders https://t.co/SfSlPWxWJY
— Dvon J-Thomas🇦🇸 (@dfesquire) January 1, 2025
No. 6 Penn State will take on the winner of No. 2 Georgia and No. 7 Notre Dame, who play New Year’s Night at 7:45 in the Sugar Bowl. Penn State will meet the winner in the Orange Bowl Jan. 9.
