Was Travis Hunter’s Heisman win foreshadowed Thursday night?
The Colorado defensive back and wide receiver became the first player to win both the Bednarik Award and the Biletnikoff Award on Thursday night. The Bednárik Award is given to the best quarterback in college football and the Biletnikoff Award is given to the best wide receiver.
The Biletnikoff Award was first awarded in 1994, and the Bednárik Award was created a year later.
While Hunter may not have the best stats of any wide receiver or defensive player, his contributions on both sides of the ball have certainly played a role in his wins. Hunter is the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night ahead of fellow finalists Ashton Jeanty, Dillon Gabriel and Cam Ward.
Hunter has 92 catches for 1,152 yards and 14 TDs as a wide receiver and added a rushing TD against Utah for good measure. Defensively, he has 32 tackles and four interceptions and 11 passes defensed. He will surely be an All-American for the second straight season. In his first season at Colorado, Hunter had 30 tackles and three interceptions in nine games while also recording 57 catches for 721 yards and five touchdowns.
The junior has already said he’s headed to the NFL after this season and will likely be a top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, though he’ll primarily play on one side of the ball.
What Hunter accomplished is unparalleled in modern college football. Few players had the opportunity to play both attack and defense at the same time. The closest recent comparison to Hunter at the college level is Champ Bailey. The Pro Football Hall of Famer had 47 catches for 744 yards and was a defensive tackle with three interceptions in 1998 at Georgia. He finished seventh in Heisman voting.
However, Hunter did not win Defensive Back or Defensive Player of the Year. The Jim Thorpe Award for Best DB went to Texas’ Jahdae Barron and the Nagurski Award for Defensive Player of the Year (other than Bednarik) went to South Carolina linebacker Kyle Kennard.
Somehow Hunter was not a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. His coach Deion Sanders, a Thorpe Award winner himself, was not happy about it.
If Hunter doesn’t win the Heisman, Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty likely will. It was no surprise that Jeanty won the Doak Walker Award for top running back on Thursday night. Jeanty already has the fourth-most rushing yards in a single season in college football history. With at least one game in the College Football Playoff, Jeanty is 132 yards away from passing Barry Sanders for the most yards in a single season. Currently, Jeanty’s 344 carries are the same number as Sanders had in his 1988 Heisman-winning season.
Both Ward and Gabriel are considered to be successful Heisman winners on Saturday night. Ward won the Davey O’Brien Award for best quarterback on Thursday.