Travis Hunter's Heisman win is a video game season come to life
Most of you know how much I love NCAA 07. It's probably my most played video game ever by a mile. Outside of ripping dynasty mode for hours on end, my favorite thing to do was create myself as a cornerback in Campus Legend and also put myself into the wide receiver depth chart once the season started to play both sides of the ball. I don't know what was more unrealistic: a white boy playing corner in major college football, playing both sides of the ball, or putting up enough numbers to win the Heisman. Either way, that type of player existing in the real world of college football felt like something that could only be achieved in a video game. At least until Travis Hunter showed up.
Sure, there've been stretches where guys like Charles Woodson, Chris Gamble, Myles Jack and Champ Bailey played both ways and excelled - but none of them did it at the level Hunter has the past two seasons. In fact, Bailey's 1998 season is the only one even close (Sorry, gotta promote my stuff!):
Hunter's sheer workload (over 1,300 total snaps this season) is far greater than the players above, but its his production that separates him from the pack. He finished the regular season in the top six nationally in catches (92), receiving yards (1,152), and receiving touchdowns (14). Defensively, he had four interceptions, 11 PBUs, a 42.0 QBR when targeted, only allowed one TD, and had a game-winning forced fumble against Baylor:
Could Woodson, Gamble, or Bailey have produced like Hunter on both sides of the ball if they'd gotten the opportunity? Maybe, but the reality is that they didn't. Hunter built off all the incredible things each of those players did and took it to uncharted territory. You don't become the first player in college football history to win national awards on offense and defense by accident:
Graphics via Colorado Football
Looking beyond just the physical toll it takes to play that much and excel, how about the mental aspect and everything we don't see that comes with it? Splitting practice reps on both sides of the ball, budgeting time between offensive/defensive/position group meetings and film study, plus knowing the tendencies of the opposition's offense and defense. That kind of responsibility on one player isn't something they can get away with by just being a great athlete. Football is as much mental as it is physical, and Hunter's inconceivable physical gifts have overshadowed just how smart a player he is:
Someone with a football IQ like that, who's also the best athlete on any field he steps on results in a player who consistently does stuff like this:
Oh, before I forget - he did all this as the driving force behind Colorado transforming from arguably the worst power five program in the country into a team who was one win away from potentially making the College Football Playoff. The Buffs are a bowl win away from their best season in over two decades, and Hunter's major role in that is just as important as the stats he put up.
As far as the debate between him and Ashton Jeanty goes, you won't find any mudslinging from me about it. Jeanty had an amazing season, and there's no way in hell I'm gonna try and minimize it just because I root for Colorado. I would've understood Jeanty winning, even if I don't agree that his case was better than Hunter's. What I don't have time for are hypothetical arguments ("If they switched teams, Jeanty would have Colorado in the Playoff!!!!"), or pretending Hunter won based off popularity or bias. There's a reason Jeanty won the Maxwell Award, and it isn't because voters didn't respect the year he had. This was as heavyweight a one-two Heisman race as we've seen in over a decade, and Jeanty just had the unfortunate luck of squaring off with Hunter.
We (I'm including myself here) love throwing around the word "deserve" during award season, and it needs to stop. Travis Hunter didn't win the Heisman because he deserved it - he won the Heisman because he earned it. He earned it by doing something no one in the history of college football has ever done, and for multiple reasons will be extremely difficult to replicate. He earned it by being college football's most outstanding player in 2024, and producing one of the greatest individual seasons in the history of the sport. In August 2023, Hunter posted "HEISMAN LOADING...." on Instagram. Just over 16 months later, the loading is complete: