A week full of hardware for Travis Hunter ended with him hoisting the biggest trophy of them all.
Colorado’s two-way superstar won the Heisman Trophy Saturday night, joining the late, great Rashaan Salaam as the only Colorado players to take home college football’s most prestigious individual honor.
The Heisman is Hunter’s seventh national award that he has won this week after he cleaned up plenty of other races in the leadup to Saturday’s showpiece. He won the following awards leading up to the Heisman ceremony:
Walter Camp Player of the Year Award
Bednarik Award (Defensive Player of the Year)
Biletnikoff Award (Best Wide Receiver)
Associated Press National Player of the Year
Paul Hornung Award (Most Versatile Player)
Lott IMPACT Trophy (Best Defensive Player)
Hunter was also a finalist for the Maxwell Award, given to the most outstanding player in the country, which was won by Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
Jeanty finished second in the voting followed by Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel in third and Miami quarterback Cam Ward in fourth.
Hunter was one of the best players in college football on each side of the ball this season, and the fact that he continued to play both wide receiver and cornerback at a high level throughout the year allowed him to have one of the best individual seasons in the sport’s history. He was the only FBS player to log 150 or more snaps on both sides of the ball and no other Power Four player even reached 30 snaps on each side. Hunter was credited with 672 snaps on offense and 688 on defense.
The former Jackson State star rewrote the Colorado record books during his junior season. His 14 receiving touchdowns set a new school record and led the Power Four, and he also had 92 catches and 1,152 receiving yards, good for fifth in Colorado history.
Defensively, Hunter’s work was arguably even more impressive. Despite being targeted just 39 times in coverage, the projected top pick in the NFL draft still came up with 11 pass breakups to lead the Big 12 and also hauled in four interceptions.
His game-winning forced fumble against Baylor was one of the primary reasons that the Buffs were in the conference title hunt all the way down to the final Saturday of the regular season.
On those 39 targets, Hunter allowed just six first downs (leads FBS) and one touchdown on 22 catches. He consistently took away half of the field and made offenses predictable in the passing game, which played a major part in the improvement of the Colorado defense this season.
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders also earned some votes and finished eighth in the final poll after a stellar season that saw him throw for 3,926 yards and 35 touchdowns.
Both Hunter and Sanders will have one more game to add to their historic statistical seasons when they take the field for the Valero Alamo Bowl against No. 17 BYU on Dec. 28.
