Hunter made every play into must see TV with something we have never seen before. And to top it off, ‘Prime Time’ was always watching close by. Colorado’s electric two-way superstar Travis Hunter won the 2024 Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, making him the first two-way player to receive college football’s most prestigious individual honor since Charles Woodson from the University of Michigan in 1997.
Hunter edged out a trio of worthy candidates; fellow Heisman finalists Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and Miami quarterback Cam Ward to take home the hardware with 2,231 points. Jeanty finished a narrow second (2,017), followed by Gabriel (516) and Ward (229).
“I never thought I’d be in this position,” Hunter said during his emotional acceptance speech. “It’s crazy. Your belief will take you a long way. It’s actually crazy, man. Thank you, thank you, thank you. First, I want to thank my fiancée and my mother. They’ve been with me since the first time I had surgery my first year of college. They never took a step away from me. All the hard hours. All the hard days. All the times I didn’t want to wake up and even get on my phone, look at football, y’all stayed with me. I’m very thankful for y’all.
“I’m thankful. I’m thankful for my mother. She took me out of Florida. Bad area, I’m always getting in trouble, to now look where I’m at. It’s crazy.
“I want to thank coach Prime, Deion Sanders, Colorado quarterback Shadeur Sanders, y’all changed my life forever.”
Playing the dual role as cornerback/wide receiver, Hunter is one-of-one, a star on both sides of the ball for coach Deion Sanders’ 9-3 Buffaloes, joining former Chicago Bears running back Rashaan Salaam in 1994 as the only Heisman winner in school history. He played a whopping 1,356 snaps, (434 more than any other FBS player) roughly split evenly between offense and defense, plus a few more on special teams, in 12 games for Colorado this season, according to Pro Football Focus.
That kind of hard work and versatility puts him in an exclusive club in college football history, which elevated Hunter’s already strong case for the Heisman. Other than Woodson, who was mainly a defensive back at Michigan, you have to go back in the history books to find a player such as Hunter who made such a difference and an impact on both sides of the ball in a single season.
Hunter earned first-team All-Big 12 honors as both a defensive back and a wide receiver, but he was also named the conference’s 2024 Defensive Player of the Year, with 15 passes defended (tied for fifth in the FBS), four interceptions and a game-winning forced fumble.
Embed from Getty ImagesOn offense, Hunter ranks fifth in the FBS with 92 catches for 1,152 yards (sixth) and 14 touchdowns (second). He had three games with 10 or more catches and seven outings with 100 or more receiving yards. He also ran for a touchdown versus Utah.
“He wants to be great at everything,” Sanders said. “He wants to have a commitment to excellence in everything he does — including fishing.”
For most players it would be too much on their plate and it seem like an overly exhausting workload for any player these days, both mentally and physically, but not for Hunter.
“I think I laid the ground for more people to come in and go two ways,” he said Friday. “It starts with your mindset. If you believe you can do it, then you’ll be able to do it. And also, I do a lot of treatment. I keep up with my body. I get a lot of recovery.”
Hunter, a junior, told the media during a conference call in November that he “for sure” plans to forgo his senior season and enter the 2025 NFL Draft that takes place in April. Underclassmen have until January 15 to submit a petition to the NFL for special draft eligibility. Deion Sanders has said he expects Hunter to play for Colorado in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday, December 28 against BYU. The former five-star recruit first created a buzz by committing to Sanders at Jackson State, then did so again in following Sanders to Boulder.
Gabriel, the 2024 Big Ten Offensive Player and Quarterback of the Year, led Oregon to a 13-0 season, a Big Ten championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming College Football Playoff, which start December 20. Ward lifted the Hurricanes in his first year at Miami, earning ACC Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year. Jeanty earned his second Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year award this season, racking up an FBS-best 2,613 all-purpose yards and 30 touchdowns.
They were all deserving finalists, but Hunter was the ‘crim dela crim’ in a class of his own this past season, and perhaps for many seasons to come on the next level.
