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Can Hunter be the first non-QB to win since 2021
Travis Hunter is something special. There’s no denying that. He’s probably Colorado’s best player going into 2024, and that’s saying a lot with the likes of Shedeur Sanders and BJ Green on the roster. The pre-season Big 12 defensive player of the year and first-team All-American will ball out this season, but what will it take for him to win the Heisman?
First things first, the cards will be stacked against Hunter. The Heisman is a more-or-less a quarterback’s award every season. Only three non-quarterbacks have won the Heisman since 2000, and none were defensive players. Hunter will probably need a slow season from the likes of Carson Beck and Dillon Gabriel if he wants to stand a chance.
With Hunter playing almost every snap on both offense and defense, he can still win the award with a stellar season. He’ll get the opportunity to rack up insane stats to bolster his case, but what kind of stats are we talking about here? Lucky for us, we have a great blueprint in 1997 Charles Woodson.
Other than Deion Sanders himself, Woodson is probably the closest comparison to Hunter that we can get. The legendary Michigan Wolverine starred on both sides of the ball in his three years in Ann Arbor, winning the 1997 Heisman. We can look at Woodson’s 1997 stats to get a rough outline of what it might take for Hunter to come away with college football’s most prestigious award.
The thing that jumps off the page the most is Woodson’s seven picks, which is a lot. Hunter came away with three picks last season, but he also missed four games due to a lacerated liver. Heisman voters will probably value interceptions more than receiving touchdowns, so racking up as many interceptions as possible will be very important for Hunter’s Heisman resume.
Hunter’s talent at cornerback is quite literally off the charts. A player like him only comes around once in a generation. The combination of his game sense, athletic ability, and body control makes him perhaps the most special player we have seen in college football since Reggie Bush or Woodson himself. All this to say: It’s more than possible that Hunter comes away with 7+ picks in 2024.
The more interceptions Hunter snags this season, the more compelling his Heisman case will be, but that’s not even including his offensive stats. Woodson didn’t do too much offensively for the Wolverines in 1997, coming away with only 11 catches for 231 yards and two touchdowns. With 5 TD catches and 721 yards, Hunter nearly tripled those numbers in five fewer games last year.
On the offensive side of the ball, Hunter doesn’t have to put up the same stats as 2020 Devonta Smith — 1800 yards and 23 touchdowns — but they do have to jump off the screen. Something like 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns would go a long way with his 7ish interceptions. That kind of a season from Hunter would garner a lot of votes, even if Beck, Gabriel or Sanders produce Heisman-caliber season.
The last, and perhaps most important, thing that needs to happen for Hunter to win the Heisman is that the Buffaloes need to win. A lot. It’s exceedingly rare that the Heisman is awarded to a non-quarterback, but it’s even rarer that a player on a mediocre team wins the award. Of the three non-quarterbacks to win the Heisman since 2000, all of them led their team to a national championship the same season they won the award.
If Colorado goes 6-6 and barely squeaks into a bowl game, Hunter can probably kiss his Heisman candidacy goodbye. The Buffs will probably have to match the 8-4 or 9-3 records of Lamar Jackson’s Louisville and Jayden Daniels’ LSU. With every additional win over that, Hunter’s chances of winning the award increase. It’s unfair that maybe the most important part of Hunter’s candidacy is mostly out of his control, but that’s unfortunately part of the award.
tl;dr: Hunter has to come away with 7ish picks, 10ish touchdown catches, and 1000ish receiving yards, and the Buffaloes need to win 8ish games this year for him to get serious consideration when Heisman voting season comes around. All those individual stats are more than achievable for a player with Hunter’s talent. This is all plausible for him considering his immense talent, stamina and productivity.
The biggest obstacle is that Colorado might not win enough games for him to build real momentum. This is an individual award that could come down his teammates stepping up, staying healthy and competing for the Big 12 title.
by RylandScholes
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