Powered by candy, music and big plays, Colorado 2-way star Travis Hunter in mix of Heisman race
DENVER (AP) — Travis Hunter's timing is nothing but impeccable — even when it comes to striking a Heisman pose.
Colorado's defensive back-receiver called an audible on a plan coach Deion Sanders had suggested, which was to break out the iconic pose after a touchdown catch. It felt too early after his first-quarter score in a 48-21 win at Central Florida.
So Hunter waited for another big moment, sure there would be one. Because there always is with him. He struck the Heisman stance after a diving interception when he was basically covering three UCF receivers.
The play and his pose quickly went viral on social media.
Once a longshot to win the award, Hunter's odds (7-1) now trail only QBs Jalen Milroe (Alabama) and Cam Ward (Miami). Hunter is the rare player who hardly takes a play off, averaging 128.6 snaps per game this season. Just don't ask him to choose between cornerback or receiver now or on the next level because he simply can't.
'I've been a two-way player since I was born,' Hunter said in an interview with The Associated Press after announcing his latest name, image and likeness deal with the audio brand JLab. 'I don't get more satisfaction with either (catching touchdowns or interceptions). I'm happy with whatever I do."
He's a throwback player who's drawn comparisons to multidimensional talents before him such as Hall of Famers Charles Woodson (Michigan) and Champ Bailey (Georgia). Before the Central Florida game, Hunter sat down with Woodson and his coach, Deion Sanders — a Pro Football Hall of Famer known for his versatile play — to talk about Hunter's two-way prowess on "Fox's Big Noon Kickoff.'
Woodson to Sanders: 'I feel like me and you, we dibbled and dabbled on both sides, but this man is truly playing on both sides of the ball. Tell me what's that been like for you to help nurture?'
'I think it's the perfect fit," Sanders responded. "Because ain't nobody in the country, coach-wise, understands what he's trying to accomplish. So it has to be somebody with that mindset, that's willing to say, 'You know what, do your thing. I got you.''
To date, Hunter has played 93.2% of the plays from scrimmage (plus 10 more on special teams).
As a receiver, Hunter's hauled in 46 passes for 561 yards and six scores. He has 26 first downs and only one dropped pass.
In the secondary, he has two interceptions despite being targeted a total of just 19 times. He also forced a critical fumble on the goal-line to secure an overtime win over Baylor.
Before his forced fumble, he offered some advice that played a role in sending the game to OT.
When Baylor called timeout prior to the last play of regulation, Hunter offered a plan to his coaches: Line him up on the right side and let him draw attention away from the other receivers. It worked as LaJohntay Wester got behind the defense to catch Shedeur Sanders' 43-yard Hail Mary pass with no time left to force OT.
A future as a play caller?
'I don't know about that,' Hunter said. 'I like to fish.'
He figures to be quite a catch for some team in the NFL. Numerous mock drafts have him selected in the top-five, with one predicting him going No. 1 and Shedeur Sanders No. 2.
'I've said this probably to all 32 NFL teams — he has some superpowers,' said Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, whose Buffaloes (4-1, 2-0 Big 12) have a bye week before hosting No. 20 Kansas State on Oct. 12. 'Any team is going to be very, very lucky to have Travis. They've just got to decide where they want to play him. He's displaying every week why he could be an impact player on both sides of the ball.'
To stay at full strength, Hunter limits his days of going full-throttle at practice.
To fuel him, he relies on something that's not exactly a super food — candy. Any kind really, but his sweet tooth craves, in particular, Sour Patch Kids and Jolly Ranchers.
His pregame routine includes putting on a pair of JLab headphones and listening to music. He said his fiancée helped facilitate his latest NIL deal with the audio gear company, which includes a campaign called 'JLab playmakers' that features prominent college players. His go-to playlist is Spotify's 'chill mix.'
Recently, Hunter tried to track how many steps he took in a game by wearing an Apple watch. It ran out of battery power before he could get an accurate count.
To make sure he doesn't run out of energy during a game, he eats applesauce. Yep, applesauce.
He knows his on-field limits, though.
'My body tells me when it's time to take a play off,' Hunter said.
To be a well-rounded player, he's watched film of Deion Sanders and his time in the NFL as a dynamic defensive back, returner and receiver.
'He was a freak athlete,' said Hunter, who followed Sanders from Jackson State to Boulder. 'He's one of the best at everything he did.'
Sanders has Colorado on the right track with three straight wins as the Buffaloes quiet some of their doubters.
'I'm not worrying about showing people how good we can be,' Hunter said. 'I just want to win.'
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Pat Graham, The Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
31 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Sean 'Diddy' Combs' lawyer mocks sex trafficking case in closing, says charges 'badly exaggerated'
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean 'Diddy' Combs was portrayed in his lawyer's closing argument on Friday as the victim of an overzealous prosecution that tried to turn the recreational use of drugs and a swinger lifestyle into a racketeering conspiracy that could put the music mogul behind bars for life. Attorney Marc Angifilo mocked the government's case against Combs and belittled the agents who seized hundreds of bottles of Astroglide lubricant and baby oil at his properties as he began a presentation expected to last several hours. 'Way to go, fellas,' he said of the agents. He said prosecutors had 'badly exaggerated' evidence of the swinger lifestyle and threesomes to combine it with recreational drug use and call it a racketeering conspiracy. 'He did not do the things he's charged with. He didn't do racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking,' the lawyer said. Agnifilo also called Combs' prosecution a 'fake trial' and ridiculed the notion that he engaged in racketeering. 'Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?' Agnifilo asked. 'Did any witness get on that witness stand and say yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise — I engaged in racketeering?' No, Agnifilo argued, telling jurors that those accusations were a figment of the prosecution's imagination. Combs' family, including six of his children and his mother, were in the audience for the closing. All his life Combs has taken care of people, Agnifilo said, including the ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym Jane, whose rent he's paying. 'I don't know what Jane is doing today,' Agnifilo said. 'But she's doing it in a house he's paying for.' Referring to lawsuits filed by Combs' accusers, he said: 'This isn't about crime. It's about money. This is about money.' He noted that Combs' girlfriend of nearly 11 years — Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura — sued him in a lawsuit that was settled for $20 million in a day in November 2023, triggering a federal probe the following day. 'If you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it's hard not to pick Cassie,' Agnifilo said. Cassie and Jane both testified during the trial that they were coerced repeatedly by Combs to perform in drug-fueled dayslong sex marathons with male sex workers while Combs watched, directed, masturbated and sometimes filmed the encounters. If convicted, Combs could face a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life. He did not testify during the trial that is in its seventh week. After Agnifilo completes his closing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey was expected to deliver a rebuttal summation before the judge reads the law to the jury, which is not expected to begin deliberations until Monday.
NBC Sports
38 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz give tennis two young superstars
LONDON (AP) — Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz are helping usher in a new era for tennis. With Wimbledon beginning, the sport's most recent Grand Slam champions are Gauff, a 21-year-old American, and Alcaraz, a 22-year-old Spaniard, who are both at No. 2 in the rankings and are both coming off French Open titles secured in riveting finals against the sport's No. 1 players. They are young, they are charismatic as an be on the court and they are media-friendly off it. Gauff-Sabalenka, Alcaraz-Sinner give tennis rivalries as Wimbledon arrives Along with No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and former No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the women's game, and No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the men's, Gauff and Alcaraz offer a bright future for a sport's fanbase that in recent years saw all-time greats Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal walk away and currently might be pondering how much longer Novak Djokovic will contend for the biggest prizes. 'Tennis is just in such a great, great place right now. We are so fortunate to have not only Coco, not only Carlos, but a deep bench of young stars that are just propelling the growth of our sport,' U.S. Open tournament director Stacey Allaster said. 'I've been around a long time, and when we have lost great, iconic champions in the past, there's generally been a little bit of a dip. We have had the exact opposite during this transition. ... I always like to say the champions of today are standing on the shoulders of the champions of the past. These champions have jumped off the shoulders of the past champions.' One key for a sport, especially an individual one, to gain attention and grow popularity is to have rivalries that demand buy-in. Alcaraz vs. Sinner clearly provides that, much in the way that Federer vs. Nadal or Nadal vs. Djokovic did. The Alcaraz vs. Sinner final at the French Open 'was insane' The five-set, 5 1/2-hour men's final at Roland-Garros was as full of momentum swings, terrific tennis and athleticism as anything those greats conjured. 'The level,' two-time reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz said, 'was insane.' The way he and Sinner, 23, are currently divvying up the biggest prizes — they've split the past six major trophies and eight of the past 11 — is certainly reminiscent of the Big Three's dominance, albeit over a much smaller sample size so far. 'Having these two guys fighting for big trophies — I think we have to be very happy about it in the sport of tennis,' said Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz's main coach. 'For them, for sure it's something that they raise their level every time that they go on the court. They know they have to play unbelievable tennis to beat the other guy, and it's something that is going to help for sure each player to raise the level even more.' Sabalenka apologized to Gauff about post-match comments in Paris It sure does seem as though Gauff vs. Sabalenka could provide that sort of dynamic and buzz, too. Consider that, like Alcaraz and Sinner, they occupy the top two spots in the rankings. And consider that, like those other two, both own multiple major titles. Gauff's two Slam triumphs came via three-set victories over Sabalenka in the finals. Plus, their latest meeting at Roland-Garros came with some added spice because of Sabalenka's post-match comments that were seen as less than fully gracious toward Gauff. It became such a thing that Sabalenka felt the need to issue a pair of apologies — one privately via writing to Gauff, and one publicly in an interview at her next tournament. Add that sort of off-court intrigue to the on-court interest, and if there are rematches at the All England Club a couple of weeks from now, no one who is invested in tennis will be displeased. 'There's incredible momentum and wind in our sales as we think about the sport, in total,' said Lew Sherr, who is about to leave his role as the CEO of the U.S. Tennis Association. 'We've had five consecutive years of participation growth ... and that certainly is being, in part, fueled by the great talent and inspiring players we have at the professional level, and also is feeding record attendance, record interest, record viewership. Those things go hand in hand. We have not missed a beat.'
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The worst 81-game starts in MLB history
We're midway through the MLB season, and the Rockies are 18-63, making them just the fifth team in AL/NL history to win fewer than 19 of their first 81 games — and the first in 121 years. 2025 Colorado Rockies (18-63 through 81 games) Advertisement This team seems stuck in an endless rebuild, last finishing above .500 in 2018. And with MLB's 18th-ranked farm system, and few if any veterans worth trading for prospects at the deadline, there isn't much hope of them getting better anytime soon. If the second half of their season goes the same as the first, they'll finish with by far the worst run differential (-426) and record (36-126) in modern MLB history* (since 1901). The 1888 Nationals at Boston's South End Grounds. (George H. Hastings/Library of Congress) 1886 Washington Nationals (13-68) This iteration of the Nationals, just one in a long line of teams bearing the same name, never quite escaped the lows of this wretched first season. They folded three years later, but remain an important part of baseball history: 1886 rookie catcher Connie Mack went on to become the winningest manager in MLB history and 1888 rookie outfielder William Hoy, who was deaf, pioneered baseball's use of hand signals. The 1889 Alleghenys, a year before their top players left for the Players' League. (Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics via Getty Images) 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys (18-63) Advertisement Pittsburgh's roster was decimated in 1890 when many of its best players jumped ship for the short-lived Players' League. They got their roster back the following year when the PL folded and they even poached a star player from the A's in a controversial move that some called "piratical." It didn't take long for newspapers to give the team a new nickname that quickly became their official moniker: the Pirates. The 1898 Spiders, one year before they were gutted. (Cleveland Spiders) 1899 Cleveland Spiders (14-67) This team was historically awful, compiling a .130 winning percentage (20-134) and -723 run differential that are both by far the worst in MLB history. It's no mystery why this happened: After seven straight winning seasons led by their ace Cy Young, the Spiders' owners bought the St. Louis Browns (now the Cardinals) and brought all their best players there. Rather than disband the Spiders, they played one final season with the worst players from both teams. Walter Johnson before Opening Day of the 1916 season. () 1904 Washington Senators (18-63) Advertisement "Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League." Those words, famously written by sportswriter Charles Dryden, summed up the franchise's early struggles, which reached a nadir in their abysmal 1904 season (38-113-6). They changed their name to the Nationals the following year, and their fortunes began turning in 1907 when a young Walter Johnson debuted. In 1961, they moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. *Who they're chasing: The 1932 Red Sox currently hold the record for worst modern run differential (-345), which is 81 runs better than the Rockies' pace. And last year's White Sox lost 121 games, five fewer than Colorado's current pace of 126.
