With Colorado’s College Football Playoff hopes hanging by a thread, Friday afternoon may have been Travis Hunter’s last opportunity to impress Heisman voters and NFL scouts. Needless to say, he didn’t disappoint.
Playing in his final regular-season game, Hunter — who’s already confirmed, to no one’s surprise, that he’ll enter the 2025 NFL Draft — delivered his fourth interception and fourth multi-touchdown performance of the season in a 52-0 blowout win over Oklahoma State. Hunter has scored in every game in which he’s picked off a pass this season, which is mind-blowing and rather unprecedented production.
Colorado will need help from Arizona, Houston, Kansas State and possibly even West Virginia this weekend to play in the conference title game. But Deion Sanders insisted this week that both Hunter and QB Shedeur Sanders will play in a bowl game, whether it’s part of the College Football Playoff or not.
More on Hunter’s latest performance …
Stat line vs. Oklahoma State
Ten receptions for 116 yards and three TDs; one tackle, one INT, two pass breakups
While once again playing more than 100 snaps, Hunter delivered an epic performance. It started in earnest on the game’s third play from scrimmage, when Hunter dropped into zone coverage and snagged an errant throw by Oklahoma State QB Maealiuaki Smith.
TRAVIS HUNTER WITH THE EARLY INTERCEPTION‼️
His Heisman Trophy campaign continues ➡️ pic.twitter.com/6JSXGICw9C
— ESPN (@espn) November 29, 2024
Hunter added the first of his three touchdown receptions later in the first quarter, an 11-yard toss from Shedeur Sanders. He then scored on an 8-yard catch to put Colorado ahead 35-0 in the third quarter and capped his highlight reel-worthy day with this insane grab:
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 rushing TD, four interceptions and 11 pass breakups.
Signature moment
Relative to most of his big plays, the degree of difficulty was low on Hunter’s first TD Friday. But check out the dance — a nod to Deion Sanders’ “Prime Time” celebration from his playing days.
TRAVIS HUNTER DOING TRAVIS HUNTER THINGS 🔥
Colorado up 21-0 in the first quarter 😳 pic.twitter.com/wpEZUnbLYb
— ESPN (@espn) November 29, 2024
What it means
They say that if you had to explain college football to an extra terrestrial, you might need a decade. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense.
Take Jim Thorpe. The legendary multi-sport icon truly made a name for himself on the gridiron as a running back — but has his name attached to a trophy (the Thorpe Award) given annually to college football’s best defensive back. Thorpe also played in the secondary, of course, and was outstanding. His true legacy, though, is that he was able to wear (and master) many hats.
Consider Hunter, too. He’s perhaps the closest thing the sport has seen to Thorpe’s skill set in decades, but apparently that wasn’t good enough to make the final cut for this year’s Thorpe Award — Georgia’s Malaki Starks, Texas’ Jahdae Barron and Ohio State’s Caleb Downs were named as finalists.
An absurdly college football premise.
Despite the Thorpe snub, Hunter’s sensational Heisman campaign rolled on in full force during Colorado’s thrashing of Oklahoma State. The 52-point blowout also marked Hunter’s final home game in Boulder, Colo., and it’s fair to wonder if it was Hunter’s final college football game period. The answer may depend on how things shake out for the Buffaloes in the Big 12 title race.
On Colorado’s Senior Day, Hunter got his own party started in the first half with his fourth interception of the season — and the ninth of his career, putting him in rare air again. ESPN flashed a graphic during the game that Hunter is now the first college football player in “30-plus years” to record at least nine interceptions and 20 touchdown catches in a career. Not even legendary Holy Cross running back/defensive back Gordie Lockbaum — a College Football Hall of Fame inductee and one of the sport’s last true two-way ironmen — pulled that off.
If Colorado doesn’t make the Big 12 title game (thus, also effectively ending any type of Playoff bid), the Buffaloes could be headed for a second-tier bowl game.
Beyond the question of whether or not Hunter will play for Colorado in a non-championship game, though, it’s also fair to wonder how much he’ll show NFL teams during the upcoming pre-draft process. As of today, six Colorado players have accepted invitations to the 2025 Shrine Bowl, including Shedeur Sanders, WR Will Sheppard and WR LaJohntay Wester. A recent NFL rule change now allows non-seniors to participate in postseason all-star games, which means Hunter could join his teammates at the Shrine Bowl or head to the Senior Bowl.
More likely? He’ll not only skip both, but teams will count themselves fortunate if Hunter does anything at the NFL combine — including medical evaluations. Not unlike Caleb Williams a year ago, Hunter is pretty clearly the best college player in America, and his value for NFL teams has been obvious for some time. Williams elected to skip medical evaluations in Indianapolis, instead holding them separately for interested teams only. Hunter should have the type of clout, if he wants to utilize it.
Either way, Friday afternoon may well have been the last time we get to see Hunter play football for a while. Hope you didn’t blink. — Nick Baumgardner
(Top photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
