As Colorado’s Travis Hunter left the field Saturday at Texas Tech, once again bruised, battered but still elite, one thought came to mind: Now it’s getting ridiculous.
Hunter’s exploits as a two-way, Heisman Trophy-chasing ironman who seldom leaves the field have reached historic and once-unimagined levels. On Saturday, Hunter participated in a school-record 161 plays.
While doing so, he led the Buffaloes in catches (nine) and receiving yards (99) while scoring a touchdown. On defense, he played 85 of 87 snaps, was targeted once in 46 passing plays and gave up one reception for 5 yards.
Never mind football players — how often do humans like this come along?
“Probably once in a lifetime,” said Eric McCarty, Colorado’s director of sports medicine.
CBS Sports set out to find what kind of physical, mental and psychological aspects make up a unicorn like Hunter. Other athletes have dabbled playing both ways, but Hunter has done it to point of exhaustion. Well, at least what would be exhaustion for mere mortals.
We reached out to former players, media, medical professionals and trainers to find out what makes Hunter unique.
“I think we all need some of what Travis Hunter has,” McCarty said.
But what is it?
“I can’t tell you what he has,” said Jordan Palmer, an NFL veteran and industry-leading quarterback trainer. “We think competing is like finishing a play or wanting to win, leaving it all on the field. That’s the more traditional way that we evaluate … It’s not that he’s playing every play that’s the most impressive piece to me. It’s clearly that he is trying to play every single play.”
That determination has resounded from the field to the family of the original 60-Minute Man. That was Chuck Bednarik’s nickname earned as one of the NFL’s last two-way players. In the 1960 NFL Championship Game, Bednarik, at age 35, played 58 of the game’s 60 minutes at center and linebacker, making the game-saving tackle against Green Bay’s Jim Taylor as time ran out.
Bednarik was named to the NFL’s 75th anniversary team as a two-way player. He was also named to the NFL’s 100th anniversary team as a linebacker. Bednarik passed away in 2015.
The Bednarik Award is given annually to the nation’s best defensive player.
“[Chuck would] remind Travis that he had a gift, but continue to work hard and don’t take it for granted,” Bednarik’s son-in-law Ken Safarowic told CBS Sports. “Of course, he might slip in a subtle reminder that as a center and linebacker he was in the middle of the action every play.”
Slightly more than a month until the Heisman ceremony, voters have a complicated decision. Do they go for the eye candy of selecting another quarterback or go for Hunter?
There really is no comparison between Hunter and the other top candidates — Miami quarterback Cam Ward, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, even teammate Shedeur Sanders.
None of this should be surprising. Hunter was a 2023 All-American who won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player. Hunter is the first Colorado player since 1961 to be both an All-American and academic All-American.
But the average Heisman voter sometimes cannot see beyond the shiny toy that is the quarterback position.
Kirk Bohls is not among those.
“Travis Hunter is the ultimate throwback from another era,” said Bohls, the veteran Houston Chronicle columnist who has had a Heisman vote since the 1980s. “If he was doing what he’s doing while wearing an Alabama or Ohio State uniform, he would become a unanimous Heisman winner. He’s that good, that durable, that versatile. He might be a victim of brand-name snobbery.”
Adding to the campaign, or perhaps distracting from it, we don’t really know Hunter that well. That beaming smile and bubbling personality deserve more. Coach Deion Sanders doesn’t make his stars regularly available to the media.
Last week, Hunter flew from Colorado to the sets of both ESPN’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” at Penn State and flew back immediately.
Meanwhile, there were scores of national writers in town to cover the Penn State-Ohio State game who never got a sniff of Hunter. Following what was then his career game against Colorado State in September, Hunter appeared in the postgame media scrum sharing the afterglow with his quarterback and offensive line.
“‘College GameDay’ was tough, bro,” Hunter said on Shedeur Sanders’ podcast. “It was cool. It was nice. I think I can do TV now after doing that. was able to talk to people that I never thought I’d be able to talk to.”
What little in-depth knowledge we have about Hunter is simple, college-student stuff. He prefers to practice, get treatment, nap, play video games, go to school and watch film.
USA Today published a Hunter story after interviewing him via email.
“He’s a film studier. He’s not a partier,” McCarty said. “He just kind of hangs out with his girlfriend and likes to fish. He’s the kind of guy you’d love to have come over to your place and hang out.”
That is every coach’s dream. This one happens to be on the cover of EA Sports “College Football 25” video game. This one is a modest 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. This one also just happens to be forged in the image of his hall of fame head coach.
“Now it makes sense to me why this kid went to Jackson State,” Palmer said. “That all makes sense to me now. I’m sure Deion sees a lot of himself in him — with none of the mistakes, none of the off-the-field distractions, additions, whatever Deion had in his closet as a young man. I’m a big fans of what Deion is doing.
“Lucky for us, because Deion is so polarizing and marketable, we’re getting to see it on nationally televised games.”
Perhaps Hunter would have been this good if Sanders wasn’t his coach. Not likely, though, given the connection of both having two-way experience. Sanders, most well-known for his defensive accolades, caught 60 passes in a 13-year NFL career.
Hunter, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2022, has surpassed all expectations. Perhaps something can be bottled and sold that transfers Hunter’s talents, but don’t count on it.
Explaining Hunter requires trips down multiple silos.
Genetics: Hunter’s father, Travis Sr., was a football and track standout at Boynton Beach (Fla.) High School. At 15, Hunter Sr. ran a 10.82-second 100 meters. Dad never played college or pro football.
Supplements: As least that’s what Palmer said would be helping Hunter. He owns a company called Threadbare Performance. One of its products, Daily Edge, promotes blood oxygenation. Palmer works with the likes of Jalen Milroe, Cade Klubnik, Kyle McCord, Joe Burrow and Sam Darnold.
“You’re able to recover quicker,” Palmer said. “You feel more energetic. You’ve got to get blood to your brain … not just your hammies.”
Hyperbaric chamber: McCarty said Hunter climbs into the device that uses oxygen that helps in healing and recovery.
“Players need metabolic rest, they need body rest,” McCarty said. “I don’t know how much Travis sleeps. That would be a good question. A lot of his ability is natural.”
Intangibles: Marcas Bamman is a research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition. His company develops what is called an “expression circuit” that measures everything from genetics to molecular traits to a psychological profile to cognitive abilities.
“If we were to test him on things like grit and resilience, I imagine he would score really, really high,” Bamman said. “I imagine he would score really, really high on cognitive intelligence tests because he’s having to make decisions very quickly.”
Bamman’s firm measures those qualities in elite groups like Navy SEALS and Army Rangers.
“At the end of the day, we would like to find out the secret sauce that defines grit,” he added. “If we can do that, a lot of people would want to drink that drink, right?”
Has Hunter at least had a sip?
“He has a unique metabolism that allows a very quick recovery rate,” McCarty added. “That is not only between plays but also after a game and after practices.”
Hunter’s recovery rate would be a revelation. It’s no secret that players need several days to recover from a weekend game. But if Hunter is playing every snap, how long does it take to recover from essentially playing two games each week?
“He’s probably not fully recovered until Wednesday or Thursday,” Palmer estimated.
There are many comparisons to what Hunter is doing. Michigan’s Charles Woodson was the last defensive player to win the Heisman in 1997. Georgia’s Champ Bailey was a defense/offense/special teams threat who caught 59 passes in his career. (Hunter has 10 more catches this season.) Primarily a cornerback, Bailey won the Nagurski Award in 1998 as the nation’s best defensive player.
Last season, Hunter joined Bailey as the only players to catch at least 50 passes and grab three picks in a season.
Hunter’s multi-threat line has seldom been achieved in the modern era. In 2023, he was the Buffs’ second-leading receiver (57) and tied for the team lead in interceptions (three).
This season, he is currently in the top 11 nationally in catches (69), receiving yards (856) and touchdown catches (nine). He leads the team with seven passes defended.
On defense, Hunter has been targeted 24 times this season, giving up 17 receptions for 125 yards, no touchdowns and only four first downs.
“The fact that he’s on the field as much as a back judge … he’s a real-life ironman,” Bohls added. “And he’ll have NFL scouts scratching their heads over whether he should be a receiver or a lock-down cornerback.”
During that Colorado State game, CBS Sports asked two NFL scouts how they’d use Hunter. Both said, anonymously, they’d find a way to use Hunter both ways in the highly specialized NFL.
Four times this season, Hunter has been on the field for at least 135 snaps. In 18 career games with CU, he has averaged 118 plays per game. The FBS average over the last two seasons is approximately 175 total plays per game. Hunter, then, has averaged playing two-thirds of the total snaps in each game (67.4%).
It was a play that didn’t count Saturday against Texas Tech that might have been his best. Colorado had been drawn offsides when Tech quarterback Behren Morton took advantage of a free play to launch a pass down the right sideline. Hunter skied for the interception that begged for a vertical leap measurement.
In that game, Hunter surpassed 2,000 career plays at CU.
Attention to detail? Before one defensive play lined up as a corner out wide, Hunter spied a tortilla before the snap — the food of choice thrown by Texas Tech fans — and cleaned up his immediate area, stuffing the wrap his pants.
“I don’t know what the magic bullet is for him,” Bamman said. “But a lot of it is probably between his head and in his heart.”
Back in 1986, Gordie Lockbaum made the cover of Sports Illustrated playing both ways for Division I-AA Holy Cross. Lockbaum once caught passes, played nickelback, returned kickoffs, downed a punt and forced a fumble all in the same game. But Lockbaum wasn’t close to what we’re witnessing today.
Hunter is playing at the highest level. A couple weeks ago, he earned both Big 12 offensive and defensive player of the week honors after his performance against Cincinnati.
“He’s not a dummy,” Lockbaum said of Hunter. “He’s got some brains in his head to be able to do all this stuff. It’s a coordination. It’s a delicate dance with the coaches. You’ve got to figure out how much time you’re going to spend in each practice.”
With all that wear comes a lot of tear, however. Lockbaum suffered a lacerated lip when a defender’s helmet caught him head on. He hurt his rib the first game of his final season.
Hunter has not been Teflon. Since his senior year in high school, he has missed 13 games.
- Hunter missed five games with an ankle injury his final season of high school ball.
- As a Jackson State freshman in 2022, Hunter missed five games with an undisclosed injury.
- Hunter missed three games last season after that crippling cheap shot from Colorado State’s Henry Blackburn that resulted in a lacerated liver.
- This season, Hunter missed the second half of the Kansas State game (CU’s only conference loss) and first half of the next game against Arizona.
“These injuries happen because it’s football,” McCarty said. “But because he recovers so well, he’s not going to get fatigued. That reduces the risk of injury.”
In September, I rated him the second-best college player I’d seen in person over a career that has spanned five decades.
“There’s no question he can be even better,” Deion said earlier this season. “There’s no ceiling.”
These Buffs have shown heart, resilience and focus. They have won four in a row on the road. Suddenly, the team isn’t known primarily for Coach Prime and his entourage of content creators trailing in his wake.
Rather, Sanders has built a college team that resembled him as a pro. Yeah, sure, all the gum-flapping is to be expected.
“We’re used to getting hated on. We’re used to it now,” Shedeur Sanders said after Saturday’s game. “So it’s a part of us almost.”
But Deion Sanders was also one of the best cover corners in college and NFL history. He let you know about it after the fact, but there was a lot of work that went into the reputation.
There is a growing group of believers who think CU, currently 7-2, can win out and go 10-2. If so, Coach Prime would have the Buffs in the Big 12 Championship Game in his second season. Colorado (+160) has the second-best betting odds to win the Big 12, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
“We don’t change with the stakes …,” the coach told reporters after Saturday’s game. “What we’re doing right now, we planned on it.”
Not all of it. Something has changed dramatically from last year’s 4-8 team. The Buffs are chasing a playoff spot this year while Hunter chases down history — as well as every receiver and every pass in his area.
“We’re glad Deion brought him here,” McCarty said.
