Ashton Jeanty Confirms Eyeing Drastic Transfer After Boise State Fired Andy Avalos

Looking back, the way Boise State football turned things around in the 2023 season, that’s still a doozy. They had a rocky start, and soon, roster retention became a critical point of contention, with mid-season transfers and injuries plaguing them. But nothing could have prepared the student-athletes for what was a rude awakening. Their then-head coach, Andy Avalos, had been fired. For fans, though, the signs were already there. 

1. The program was simply not functioning at the level it should have. Avalos didn’t get them the Mountain West win.
2. Even though he was a former star player at Boise State and spent several seasons as an assistant there, not much clicked apart from a winning streak to close out the 2022 season.
3. The firing happened a day after the Broncos won the game against New Mexico and went 5-5. The team was on the verge of the program’s first losing season since 1997.

So, DC Spencer Danielson took over the reins and asked his players to get their notebooks out. “We got two games promised to us right now, let’s finish those… Grown men finish what they started, and we’re going to do this together.” The result? The Broncos showed up and won 45-10 against Utah State. The next week, they defeated Air Force 27-19 to keep their Mountain West Championship game hopes alive. The next time we heard, after four years, they had done it!

Gatorade was thrown on Coach Danielson, and his players jumped around in excitement. But none of that came easily. Hear it from the 21-year-old Ashton Jeanty, who helped Boise State to the 2023 Mountain West title on the back of the surprise firing of his HC, in a podcast discussion with Maxx Crosby on Wednesday: “People didn’t really understand the situation. 

“We lost so many games that we were supposed to win, like by a field goal or something. It wasn’t always just that we didn’t play well enough… a lot of it was coaching. And then, our head coach, he got fired. Like, it was crazy. This generation now, like you see it on social media. I’m seeing it on Twitter [his coach getting fired] before we even get calls, and like a team meeting.

“Once he got fired, it was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen.’ Usually in college, new coach comes in, everybody’s gone. It’s a clean wipe. They’ll even bring in their own players. Am I really trying to learn a whole new offense, a whole new system — like a whole new everything? It usually doesn’t work out. And I’m trying to have a great, great year… expand on what I did this past year.”

Adding fuel to the fire? The NIL imbalance. While lighting up the Mountain West, Jeanty felt undervalued. “We wasn’t getting no bread like that,” he stated bluntly. “And like, I don’t like to compare myself to others… But I’m like, ‘Hey, look at what I’m doing and I’m not getting anything for it.’ And there’s guys not even doing close to what I’m doing and they getting way more. Obviously, when people calling you, offering six figures, even seven figures… bro, at 19, 20, you’re going to think about that. Like, man, that could change my life, my family’s life.” In the end, he chose to stay. 

“Once they hired our new head coach — who had already been there, he was the DC — I knew he was going to be perfect for the job,” Jeanty said, referring to Spencer Danielson stepping up from Defensive Coordinator. “He was going to keep everybody. Same running back coach. Only thing that changed was OC, but the offense wasn’t going to change.” More than a scheme, it was about the soul. Jeanty saw himself as the cornerstone. He was confident he could keep the team together. 

Why he stayed: The glue of the blue Jeanty

His decision proved prophetic. Under Danielson, the 2023 Broncos rallied, winning the Mountain West Championship. In 2024, with Jeanty operating like a cheat code unlocked, Boise State roared back into national relevance, fueled by the loyalty of its homegrown star. Jeanty didn’t just put up big numbers; he embodied the resilience that Avalos himself once showed as a record-setting Broncos linebacker.

Avalos’ firing after a 5-5 start in his third season (22-14 overall). It was driven by unmet national-level expectations, locker-room fissures, and became a turning point, not an ending. His legacy, like the iconic blue turf, remains complex: A former player and defensive architect (he previously boosted Oregon from 49th to 9th nationally in defense) whose head coaching tenure ended abruptly, yet paved the way for Jeanty’s leadership to cement Boise State’s future.

In the high-stakes, transient world of college football, Jeanty’s choice to stay felt almost radical. He wasn’t just chasing stats or cash; he was protecting a culture, a brotherhood, the very identity of Bronco football. He bet on blue, and in doing so, wove his own chapter into the program’s rich tapestry, proving sometimes the most drastic move is choosing not to move at all. The glue held. The house stood.