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It’s now Hunter or Ashton Jeanty.
In what will be his final game at Folsom Field, Travis Hunter gave a performance Colorado fans will never forget. It doesn’t get much better for a two-way star: 10 catches for 116 yards and three touchdowns, plus an interceptions and two pass breakups on defense.
Obviously the Buffs were stat-padding in the 52-0 rout of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Part of that was to get some clips for their NFL Draft highlights, some of that was building awards cases for players like Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, and a whole bunch was taking the piss out of an emergent rival.
But who cares! Deion Sanders and Hunter have been openly campaigned for the Heisman since the day they set foot in Boulder. That’s been one of the top goals this season, along with competing for the Big 12 and getting Shedeur into the first round of the draft. Colorado has hardly tried to hide their efforts. They ran a jet sweep against Utah to get him a touchdown pass, only for the play to blow up ... and end up in a rushing TD and the Heisman pose.
Hunter is looking like the overwhelming favorite and this point and would likely run away with the award in a normal year. He started the season scoring three TDs on North Dakota State, built up his portfolio during CU’s 7-1 midseason stretch, picked up a few interceptions here and there (watch this one again from last year), and has finally ended his campaign with three massive performances.
It hasn’t always resulted in wins, but Hunter can only do so much. At cornerback, he shuts down his entire side of the field, has the best ball skills in the country if thrown at, and looks a lot better in the run game than Prime did in his time. On offense he’s capable of taking the top off the defense, housing bubble screens or jet sweeps, and is unrivaled on contested catches. But sometimes the Buffs’ can’t protect Shedeur from the Nebraska d-line, or his teammates miss 58 tackles and the Jayhawks hold the ball for 40 minutes of possession.
Colorado probably won’t make the Big 12 title game and they almost certainly won’t make the College Football Playoff. That’s usually a death blow in the Heisman race, as only Jayden Daniels (9-3), Lamar Jackson (8-4) and Robert Griffin III (9-3) have in the last 25 years won the award with three or more losses. Those were massive carry jobs on deeply flawed teams. Those players had to turn in transcendental performances every single week to even have a chance at being competitive.*
Hunter is close to Jackson and Griffin as a Heisman candidate. Both are legends of the game who shined at formerly moribund programs. Louisville enjoyed success in the American and Big East conferences, but they were a non-serious program who could compete for the odd conference title and nothing more. Baylor had fourteen straight losing seasons before RG3 suited up. That program had won nothing before 2011 and thankfully they’re back where they belong in the catacombs of the Big 12.
For Jackson and Griffin, winning 8 or 9 games for Louisville and Baylor was the equivalent of an Alabama, Oklahoma or USC player winning 12+ games, their conference title and reaching the BCS Championship or College Football Playoff. Hunter should be viewed in the same light, as his Buffs had won more than six games just once since 2005. This team has very real flaws and they were never going to compete in the bigger picture. It’s a small miracle they went 9-3 and had a chance at the Big 12 title game.
Despite the vitriol towards Deion Sanders and his Colorado project, the college football world has come around on Hunter’s Heisman case. He’s a significant favorite in Vegas, as Fox Sports lists his odds at -10000. He should run away with the award, if not for a certain Ashton Jeanty running away from Mountain West defenders.
It’s a shame for Jeanty that his Heisman campaign has seemingly run out of steam. He hasn’t set a single foot wrong. He’s up to 2,288 yards and 28 rushing touchdowns and is averaging nearly 8 yards per carry despite facing eight-, nine- and ten-man boxes all season. Not only is he likely to beat Barry Sanders’ all-time rushing yards (albeit in three extra games), but his Boise State Broncos are 11-1 and will face Colorado State in the MWC title game with a chance to get an automatic bid to the Playoff.
Heisman voters are hardly staying up to watch Boise State football and they’re likely discounting him for the poor defense played in the Mountain West. Maybe if they had beat Oregon in Week 2 — a 37-34 loss, in which Jeanty ran for 192 yards and 3 scores — things would be different. Or maybe this goes to show how difficult it is not only to win the Heisman as a running back, but to win any major award while playing in a small conference.
It’s hard to pick out a recent winner he would likely beat. Bryce Young and Caleb Williams almost won by default, but even then they put up ridiculous stats on winning teams. Maybe Kyler Murray but he had the juice that year. Derrick Henry had both the stats and the aura on an inevitable Crimson Tide. The only sure ones are Mark Ingram** and Troy Smith*** and those are the two weakest Heisman cases of the last 25 years.
Rather, Jeanty compares more favorably to Heisman runner-ups, like Christian McCaffrey breaking Sanders’ all-purpose yards records, or Melvin Gordon putting the Wisconsin Badgers on his back.**** The only hope for a running back, it seems, is to break every record imaginable, carry your team to national title contention, and just hope no other non-RB candidates make a legit case.*****
While Jeanty has been special, Hunter has had the kind of season that should make him a college football immortal. The two-way superstardom, the 92 catches, 1,152 yards and 15 total touchdowns, the four interceptions and the fear of God in the quarterback’s eyes, and least of all helping the Buffs to a 9-win season and a shot at the Big 12 title, our equivalent to 13 wins and a CFP berth.
*Cam Newton deserves a shout, who won 14 games and the natty for a thoroughly mediocre Auburn team.
**Suh should have won over Ingram and Gerhardt in 2009.
***Troy Smith and Eric Crouch have the softest Heisman in the last 35 years. Smith won by default, having a good season for a great Ohio State, while no one else got close to a Heisman-caliber season.
****Bryce Love and Toby Gerhardt also finished second, but Jeanty was better than Love, and I already mentioned Jeanty would have won in 2009. (Also lol Stanford for having five Heisman second place finishes in a ten-year span.)
*****Reggie Bush is the only recent exception but he’s Reggie Bush and also the Heisman probably goes to Vince Young if they voted on it after the natty.
by Sam Metivier
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