Travis Hunter is leading the Heisman Trophy, but may miss out on the final shot

November 29, 2024

He fought the wrong fight earlier this week, advocating for a meaningless position assignment.

“If this isn’t the most idiotic thing in college football,” Colorado coach Deion Sanders said.

You want idiot? I give you idiotic.

Travis Hunter is the best player in college football, and the best player in college football may not be on the field during championship week. And that might just be enough to lose the Heisman Trophy.

If we’ve learned anything about voting for the most coveted individual award in sports, it’s that voters are prisoners of the moment. Unless it’s an obvious election (like Jayden Daniels in 2023), last weekend has a significant impact on voters.

Unless something unusual happens in this final weekend of Big 12 racing – and why wouldn’t it, given what we’ve already seen? — Colorado will miss the Big 12 championship game and college football’s best player will be out of sight and out of mind next weekend, sitting at home as the moment passes.

While Dillon Gabriel will lead No. 1 Oregon (likely against No. 2 Ohio State) in the Big Ten Championship Game, elevated on the biggest Heisman stage of the regular season.

While Ashton Jeanty will play in the Mountain West championship, he’s adding to his 2,228 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns – still chasing Barry Sanders’ immortal single-season rushing record.

While Cam Ward could play for the ACC title to give Miami its first outright conference championship since 2002 and improve his video game numbers.

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Meanwhile, the player who must be held accountable at all times on the field in both offense and defense is sitting at home. The player who had his third interception of the season on the third play of Friday’s loss to Oklahoma State – because Cowboys quarterback Maealiuaki Smith tested him and then, like many this season, didn’t again – will watch others dominate the stage.

The player who caught a touchdown pass and intercepted a pass in the same game for the fourth time in two years at Colorado, who again played in more than 100 games (like every game he started and finished that season) , will do Learn more about Gabriel’s amazing career.

Or Ward’s year-long march through the ACC, dismantling everything in his path like Sherman through Atlanta.

Or Jeanty’s inspirational and spiritual journey to greatness, a player no one wanted who now threatens the untouchable record.

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All four of them are Heisman worthy, all with unique stories and elite play that could win in many other seasons. But Hunter is different — and has been since the moment he walked out of Collins Hill High School in Suwannee, Georgia.

He committed to play at Florida State, the first major signing for Seminoles coach Mike Norvell. And then the unlikely happened, starting with (what else?) a recruiting pitch from Coach Prime himself – then the coach at Jackson State.

Why do what everyone else is doing? Be more than a football player, be a transcendent figure in society. Be a change agent.

Why follow all those great players at Florida State — including Sanders, perhaps the best to ever wear the Seminoles’ garnet and gold — and become one of many? You can become one of them at Jackson State University, the No. 1 overall high school recruit turning down major college football for a historically black college at the Championship Subdivision level.

It turns out he’s one of the best in major college football after all.

In the two years since he followed Sanders to Colorado, Hunter has been the most dynamic non-quarterback in the game. This season he is the best at every position – even if he plays two.

It’s more than the 82 catches for 1,036 yards and 11 touchdowns, as well as the interceptions and his ability to block one side of the field in the passing game. Teams just don’t throw at him.

Meanwhile, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders throws at Hunter every chance he gets, saying earlier this season, “When he gets close, he catches it.”

Hunter played in 68 offensive games against Oklahoma State and 46 more on defense. He was removed from the game with 11 minutes to play because Colorado led 52-0.

This rare season is so indefinable that we have to limit ourselves to comparisons with Champ Bailey and Charles Woodson. Two great players, but two players who didn’t have nearly as much impact as Hunter on both sides of the ball.

Woodson won the Heisman at Michigan in 1997 and Bailey was an All-American at Georgia. And Hunter wasn’t the player he was in two seasons in Colorado, either.

If Hunter played at Michigan or Georgia and put up similar numbers, the Heisman race would already be over. As it is, we’re left to watch the finalists for the Idiot Position Awards being announced and wonder what on earth those voting for the award are looking at.

Unless something untoward happens in the Big 12 race on Saturday (it’s too complicated to explain), we’ll see what Heisman voters see next week — and it won’t be Hunter.

And another potential idiotic trophy moment.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him to X @MattHayesCFB.

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