With Colorado’s College Football Playoff hopes hanging by a thread, Friday afternoon might have been Travis Hunter’s final alternative to impress Heisman voters and NFL scouts. Needless to say, he didn’t disappoint.
Playing in his last regular-season sport, Hunter — who’s already confirmed, to nobody’s shock, that he’ll enter the 2025 NFL Draft — delivered his fourth interception and fourth multi-touchdown efficiency of the season in a 52-0 blowout win over Oklahoma State. Hunter has scored in each sport through which he’s picked off a cross this season, which is mind-blowing and reasonably unprecedented manufacturing.
Colorado will need assistance from Arizona, Houston, Kansas State and presumably even West Virginia this weekend to play within the convention title sport. But Deion Sanders insisted this week that each Hunter and QB Shedeur Sanders will play in a bowl sport, whether or not it’s a part of the College Football Playoff or not.
More on Hunter’s newest efficiency …
GO DEEPER
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Stat line vs. Oklahoma State
Ten receptions for 116 yards and three TDs; one sort out, one INT, two cross breakups
While as soon as once more enjoying greater than 100 snaps, Hunter delivered an epic efficiency. It began in earnest on the sport’s third play from scrimmage, when Hunter dropped into zone protection and snagged an errant throw by Oklahoma State QB Maealiuaki Smith.
TRAVIS HUNTER WITH THE EARLY INTERCEPTION‼️
His Heisman Trophy marketing campaign continues ➡️ pic.twitter.com/6JSXGICw9C
— ESPN (@espn) November 29, 2024
Hunter added the primary of his three landing receptions later within the first quarter, an 11-yard toss from Shedeur Sanders. He then scored on an 8-yard catch to place Colorado forward 35-0 within the third quarter and capped his spotlight reel-worthy day with this insane seize:
TRAVIS HUNTER, ARE YOU KIDDING!? 😱
THIRD TD OF THE DAY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6yTD1nk1Cq
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 29, 2024
Hunter’s totals on offense this season: 92 receptions for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns. He’s added a speeding TD, 4 interceptions and 11 cross breakups.
Signature second
Relative to most of his massive performs, the diploma of issue was low on Hunter’s first TD Friday. But take a look at the dance — a nod to Deion Sanders’ “Prime Time” celebration from his enjoying days.
TRAVIS HUNTER DOING TRAVIS HUNTER THINGS 🔥
Colorado up 21-0 within the first quarter 😳 pic.twitter.com/wpEZUnbLYb
— ESPN (@espn) November 29, 2024
What it means
They say that for those who needed to clarify school soccer to an additional terrestrial, you may want a decade. There’s lots that doesn’t make sense.
Take Jim Thorpe. The legendary multi-sport icon actually made a reputation for himself on the gridiron as a working again — however has his identify hooked up to a trophy (the Thorpe Award) given yearly to varsity soccer’s finest defensive again. Thorpe additionally performed within the secondary, after all, and was excellent. His true legacy, although, is that he was capable of put on (and grasp) many hats.
Consider Hunter, too. He’s maybe the closest factor the game has seen to Thorpe’s ability set in a long time, however apparently that wasn’t ok to make the ultimate minimize for this 12 months’s Thorpe Award — Georgia’s Malaki Starks, Texas’ Jahdae Barron and Ohio State’s Caleb Downs had been named as finalists.
An absurdly school soccer premise.
Despite the Thorpe snub, Hunter’s sensational Heisman marketing campaign rolled on in full drive throughout Colorado’s thrashing of Oklahoma State. The 52-point blowout additionally marked Hunter’s last dwelling sport in Boulder, Colo., and it’s truthful to marvel if it was Hunter’s last school soccer sport interval. The reply might rely upon how issues shake out for the Buffaloes within the Big 12 title race.
On Colorado’s Senior Day, Hunter obtained his personal get together began within the first half along with his fourth interception of the season — and the ninth of his profession, placing him in uncommon air once more. ESPN flashed a graphic throughout the sport that Hunter is now the primary school soccer participant in “30-plus years” to report no less than 9 interceptions and 20 landing catches in a profession. Not even legendary Holy Cross working again/defensive again Gordie Lockbaum — a College Football Hall of Fame inductee and one of many sport’s final true two-way ironmen — pulled that off.
If Colorado doesn’t make the Big 12 title sport (thus, additionally successfully ending any sort of Playoff bid), the Buffaloes could possibly be headed for a second-tier bowl sport.
Beyond the query of whether or not or not Hunter will play for Colorado in a non-championship sport, although, it’s additionally truthful to marvel how a lot he’ll present NFL groups throughout the upcoming pre-draft course of. As of immediately, six Colorado gamers have accepted invites to the 2025 Shrine Bowl, together with Shedeur Sanders, WR Will Sheppard and WR LaJohntay Wester. A latest NFL rule change now permits non-seniors to take part in postseason all-star video games, which suggests Hunter may be part of his teammates on the Shrine Bowl or head to the Senior Bowl.
More possible? He’ll not solely skip each, however groups will rely themselves lucky if Hunter does something on the NFL mix — together with medical evaluations. Not in contrast to Caleb Williams a 12 months in the past, Hunter is fairly clearly one of the best school participant in America, and his worth for NFL groups has been apparent for a while. Williams elected to skip medical evaluations in Indianapolis, as a substitute holding them individually for groups solely. Hunter ought to have that sort of clout, if he needs to put it to use.
Either means, Friday afternoon might properly have been the final time we get to see Hunter play soccer for some time. Hope you didn’t blink. — Nick Baumgardner
Required studying
(Top photograph: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
