Boise State 2025 spring football position-by-position preview: Running backs

Sire Gaines, others take over for Ashton Jeanty

Boise State Broncos running back Sire Gaines (26). / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Boise State soared to new heights during the 2024 football season.  

The Broncos repeated as Mountain West Conference champions and were selected for the College Football Playoff. 

Both accomplishments were program firsts for the Broncos, who finished 12-2 overall after falling to Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl. 

Boise State’s roster will look a bit different next season as star players like running back Ashton Jeanty and defensive end Ahmed Hassanein move on to the NFL. 

With spring ball just around the corner, Boise State Broncos on SI is taking a position-by-position look at head coach Spencer Danielson’s roster heading into next season. 

We started with the quarterback position and will now move on to the running backs room. 

Running backs

Jeanty put together one of the best running back seasons in college football history as a junior, finishing with 2,601 rushing yards and 30 total touchdowns. Jeanty topped the 100-yard mark in all 14 games and came up 28 yards shy of breaking Barry Sanders’ FBS single-season record.

Jeanty, who declared for the NFL Draft last week, won the Maxwell Award (college football player of the year), Doak Walker Award (best running back in college football) and his second Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year honor while placing second in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Boise State asked Jeanty to carry the ball 374 times a season ago, an unrealistic number for almost any other back. Injuries to reserves Sire Gaines and Breezy Dubar left the Broncos with few options behind Jeanty, and the 5-foot-9, 215-pound rock could handle the workload.  

Danielson knows it will take multiple players to replace Jeanty’s production, but the coach believes Gaines has what it takes to be the next great back at Boise State. 

“Sire Gaines, it’s time,” Danielson said. “I cannot wait. Because of how he’s wired and his skillset, the nation is going to see a lot of Sire Gaines.”

Rated the No. 57 overall prospect in California for the class of 2024 in the 247Sports composite rankings, Gaines arrived on campus last January with big expectations. He had 12 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown in Boise State’s season-opening win over Georgia Southern but suffered an ankle injury against Portland State that sidelined him for the rest of the year. 

Danielson said Gaines would’ve been available to play if the Broncos had reached the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. 

“When we start winter workouts, Sire Gaines will hit the ground running,” Danielson said. “And I am so excited for him.”

Dubar had 25 carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns during his injury-plagued sophomore season. Dubar was a four-star recruit coming out of Texas’ Anna High School. 

Sophomore-to-be Dylan Riley and Fresno State transfer Malik Sherrod, who has one year of eligibility remaining, could also factor into the running back rotation. Sherrod had 324 carries for 1,634 yards and 15 touchdowns in five seasons with the Bulldogs. 

“I believe we’ve got some of the best running backs in the country right here at Boise State football right now,” Danielson said. “We’re probably going to have some packages to get two on the field at one time, which you guys have seen in years past. Because that’s going to be a room we’re going to have a lot of talented guys in.”

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• Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson: ‘What we did this year is not going to be enough going forward’

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