Colorado receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter played an astounding 1,356 snaps this season but doesn’t feel the least bit overworked.
The two-way star received the ultimate payoff Saturday night when he was named the winner of the 90th Heisman Trophy.
Hunter won the coveted award over record-setting Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty. Hunter was named on 93.32 percent of the ballots and received 552 first-place votes and 2,231 points. Jeanty landed 309 first-place votes and 2,017 points.
The 214-point difference is the lowest since Alabama’s Mark Ingram won the award over Stanford’s Toby Gerhart in 2009 in a battle of running backs. Ingram prevailed by 28 points.
The difference between the top two players in college football this season is that Hunter excels on defense as well as offense.
That crazy number of snaps — an average of 113 per game — doesn’t faze Hunter.
“I love football so much,” Hunter said during the Heisman ceremony in New York. “It started at a young age, so I’m used to it. It’s normal for me. … I can’t stop moving when I’m not on the field, so I would rather be on the field making plays.”
Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel (516 points) was third, followed by Miami quarterback Cam Ward (229 points) in fourth.
Hunter joins running back Rashaan Salaam in 1994 as the only Colorado players to win the Heisman.
Hunter has 92 receptions for 1,152 yards and ranks second nationally with 14 touchdown catches. On defense, he has four interceptions with 15 passes defensed and was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.
Hunter won the Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defensive player and the Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver in the country.
Hunter is in his second and final season at Colorado, as he has stated that he will enter the 2025 NFL Draft. After decommitting from Florida State, Hunter began his college career at Jackson State and transferred to the Buffaloes when Deion Sanders departed to become Colorado coach.
Sanders posted a recruiting score for the ages when he landed Hunter at Jackson State over all the major schools. He saw a special player then and sees an even better one now.
“He wants to be great at everything,” Sanders said. “Great student, great offensive player, great defensive player, great young man. Loves the game, loves practice.”
Jeanty is enjoying one of the top running back seasons of all-time with 2,497 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns. He stands 131 yards shy of the all-time mark held by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders (2,628 in 1987). Sanders had 222 more in the Holiday Bowl that aren’t part of his record season, as those stats didn’t count at the time.
“I’ve broken a lot of records this year, but I don’t think I’ve broken any of the records that have been around for 30-plus years,” Jeanty said. “When I break that record, that’s gonna cement my name in the history books forever.”
Jeanty has 10 touchdown runs of 50 or more yards to etch his name among the top home-run threats in college football history, players such as Sanders, Marshall Faulk of San Diego State and LaDainian Tomlinson of TCU.
Jeanty is a two-time Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year. After last season, bigger programs attempted to sway him to leave the Broncos.
“When everyone thought he might leave, he was like, ‘I want to be here. I want to leave a legacy. I want to be different,’ ” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “… He left a legacy at Boise State that will be around forever.”
Gabriel previously played three seasons at UCF and two at Oklahoma before landing with the Ducks this season and completing 73.2 percent of his passes for 3,558 yards and 28 touchdowns. He was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.
“I’m so blessed that I got the opportunity to coach him,” Ducks coach Dan Lanning said.
Ward set program records of 4,123 yards and 36 touchdown passes in his lone season at Miami after transferring from Washington State. He began his career at FCS program Incarnate Word.
Ward’s advice: “Not to really look at the rankings and who is projected here or there because it has nothing to do with what you do on the football field.”
