BOULDER — Running all over the Mountain West is like dunking on the kids’ table at Thanksgiving.
Melvin Gordon piled up more yards from scrimmage than Ashton Jeanty. Kapri Bibbs ran for more touchdowns.
Before your Heisman Trophy ballot dies on that hill of lies, dang lies and statistics, consider two things:
Since 1981, seven different Football Bowl Subdivision players, including Jeanty, have rushed for 2,200 yards in a season.
Since 1981, you know how many guys have picked off four passes while also grabbing 13 touchdown catches and piling up at least 1,100 receiving yards? In the same year? Just one.
You’ll see Jeanty again.
You’ll never see the likes of Travis Hunter. Ever.
“Special,” Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy said of CU’s two-way star, who intercepted a pass and caught 10 balls for 116 yards and three scores in a 52-0 thrashing of his 3-9 Cowboys.
“We threw at (Hunter) six or eight times, 10 times. There’s not really a reason to challenge him at times. Going in, I said this on Monday, he plays about 135 plays per game, on both sides of the ball, and he’s a special player.”
Colorado’s Travis Hunter (12) celebrates his interception of Oklahoma State quarterback Maealiuaki Smith during a game on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, in Boulder, Colorado. (Cliff Grassmick/Daily Camera)
Hunter was Halley’s Comet in his Folsom Field farewell on Friday, and just about every white and orange jersey walked away eating his dust.
With a Thorpe Award Trophy snub fresh on his mind, and on the mind of coach Deion Sanders, No. 12’s pick came 1:45 into the game, on a desperation third-and-18 heave into triple coverage by Cowboys signal-caller Maealiuaki Smith.
“He’s amazing,” offered Brennan Presley, the senior Oklahoma State wideout to whom that wounded duck was thrown. “He’s really, really, smart. He is as advertised at the end of the day. He is one of the best players in the country.”
With that, Hunter became the first CU player with 1,000 yards of offense and four interceptions in the same campaign since Byron “Whizzer” White in 1937. In a historical footnote that you hope portends nothing, Ol’ Whizzer became the Heisman runner-up later that year. (And he lost out to a halfback, Clint Frank of Yale.)
“Heisman” moment? As usual, you could pick from a buffet. I’m partial, funny enough, to one catch the guy didn’t make. Up 21-0 with 11:14 to go until halftime, Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders, under duress, lofted a ball up the right boundary in Hunter’s general direction. There were two guys blanketing No. 12 at the time, but Shedeur liked the odds. In one motion, Hunter leaped about five feet, extending one arm to the heavens. The ball skipped off his fingertips. Hunter came crashing down to earth, then rolled back up to his feet, making a “this-close” sign to the crowd, and to the Pokes secondary, with his thumb and forefinger. And it was. Still, anything traveling at altitude, and with that kind of speed, ought to come with beverage …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Sports
