The perfect participant in school soccer is Travis Hunter, and it isn’t shut.
Hunter pressured a fumble to seal a 38-31 win towards Baylor in time beyond regulation to seal Colorado’s Huge 12 win. Earlier than that play, he caught seven passes for 130 yards.
He has already caught 37 passes for 472 yards by way of 4 video games. He ranks sixth within the nation in receiving yards and fifth within the nation in receptions.
He ranks second within the nation amongst Energy 4 receivers in receptions, and third in receiving yards.
On high of this, he has truly performed extra snaps on protection than on offense, and he is received an interception over there, too. He’d probably have extra INTs if groups threw at him extra usually. Even whereas he’s enjoying each methods, groups are reluctant to assault him.
He’ll enter the NFL as the person with the perfect ball abilities of any rookie within the league.
He is the No. 1 total choose within the 2025 NFL Draft. NFL franchises simply do not know it but. (Although it must be famous that our personal Rob Rang predicts Hunter will go No. 1 total in his newest mock draft.)
Charles Woodson’s particular person blueprint is already one Hunter can match.
In 1997, Woodson caught 11 passes for 231 yards and two TDs. Final 12 months, Hunter caught 57 passes for 721 yards and 5 TDs, practically tripling Woodson’s offensive stats in 5 fewer video games.
Followers storm the sphere after Travis Hunter helps Buffs high Baylor in OT
However Woodson additionally had seven INTs and was a menace as a punt returner on his approach to successful the Heisman. And, crucially, he performed on the nationwide title group — the perfect participant on the perfect group.
A 6-6 CU is not gonna win Hunter the Heisman. In actual fact, it is extra prone to kill his marketing campaign. CU must go 8-4 like Lamar Jackson‘s Louisville or 9-3 like Jayden Daniels‘ LSU.
Hunter should someway give you at the very least 5 INTS, 10 TDs and 1,000 receiving yards. He additionally wants the Buffaloes to win at the very least eight video games and sniff the Huge 12 title sport.
However many Heisman voters do not respect a few of the sport’s excellent gamers if they do not play on huge model groups. Ashton Jeanty has performed greater than sufficient already to earn consideration that ought to have him in a dialog with Cam Ward at Miami, Jalen Milroe at Alabama or Dillon Gabriel at Oregon.
There are few gamers who’ve gained the Heisman with out being the perfect participant on the perfect group. Jackson and Daniels pulled it off, however they’re quarterbacks. Hunter isn’t.
Hunter, at Colorado, is like Randy Moss at Marshall, Calvin Johnson at Georgia Tech or Larry Fitzgerald at Pitt. None gained the Heisman. All are in that group known as The Finest to Ever Do It.
However what none of them has performed — not even his famous person head coach Deion Sanders — is play greater than 100 snaps in each sport in a season. Now we have by no means seen this type of expertise and stamina on show in a sport outlined by powerful guys. Now we have not seen any participant even try to play as many snaps as Hunter seems engineered to do.
Now we have not seen this type of particular person brilliance and burnished brawn in some other athlete except for Shohei Ohtani, and he performs baseball. Ohtani grew to become the primary participant to hit 50 house runs and steal 50 bases.
Hunter can turn out to be the primary participant to file 500 receiving yards and a number of INTs in multiple season. He simply wants another INT and 28 receiving yards. This reality alone ought to earn him recognition as a Heisman finalist. This 12 months that is not sufficient. At this tempo, on the finish of Act 1 of an important season in historical past, acknowledge a participant in Hunter who’s pushing the game into the long run.
And crown him.
Crown Travis Hunter because the nation’s greatest participant.
RJ Younger is a nationwide school soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports activities and the host of the podcast “The Quantity One School Soccer Present.” Observe him at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Younger Present” on YouTube.
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