Ashton Jeanty: 'I Should've' Won Heisman 'but Kudos to' Travis Hunter for Award

Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty fell just short of the Heisman Trophy but believes the results "should've" been different even though he praised Colorado star Travis Hunter for taking home the award.

"I really felt like I should've walked away with the award, but kudos to Travis for winning," he told reporters Saturday after finishing in second place in the voting. "But yeah, it's simple as that. Work harder, go harder."

While Hunter turned heads throughout the season by thriving at multiple positions as a wide receiver and cornerback, the Heisman ended up being anything but a formality given the voting breakdown.

ESPN noted Hunter received 552 first-place votes and 2,231 overall points to Jeanty's 309 first-place votes and 2,017 overall points. That made it the closest margin of victory since Alabama running back Mark Ingram defeated Stanford running back Toby Gerhart in 2009.

Jeanty will not walk away from this season empty-handed, though, as he won the Maxwell Award as college football's top player and the Doak Walker Award as the nation's top running back.

What's more, his Broncos are in the College Football Playoff as the No. 3 overall seed, which meant they earned a first-round bye and are three victories away from being national champions.

Hunter's Colorado team settled for an Alamo Bowl matchup against BYU.

"There's a lot more to come," Jeanty told reporters when revealing falling short in the Heisman race is motivating him moving forward. "This isn't the end, this is just the beginning. So I just have to do that much more to get the things that I want."

Barry Sanders set the gold standard for running back seasons when he won the 1988 Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma State with 2,628 yards and 37 touchdowns on the ground in just 11 games. While Jeanty has played 13 games this season heading into the CFP, he threatened those marks ahead of Saturday's Heisman ceremony.

He posted 2,497 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground, which was all the more notable since he wasn't even on the field at the end of a number of Boise State blowout wins.

It wasn't enough to defeat Hunter in the Heisman race, but he still has his eye on a national championship run as the Broncos wait to see who their opponent will be between Penn State and SMU.