Was a Travis Hunter Heisman win foreshadowed on Thursday night?
The Colorado defensive back and wide receiver became the first player to win the Bednarik Award and Biletnikoff Award on Thursday night. The Bednarik Award is given to the best defensive player in college football and the Biletnikoff Award is given to the best wide receiver.
The Biletnikoff Award was first given out in 1994 and the Bednarik Award was established a year later.
Though Hunter may not have the best stats of any wide receiver or defensive player, his contributions on the other side of the ball assuredly played a role in his wins. Hunter is the prohibitive favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night ahead of other 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 to go along with 11 passes defensed. He’ll assuredly be an All-American for the second season in a row. 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 heading to the NFL after this season and is likely going to be a top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft even if he’ll only play primarily on one side of the ball.
What Hunter has done is unprecedented in modern college football. Few players have had the opportunity to play both offense and defense. 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 at Georgia in 1998 and was a shutdown corner on defense with three interceptions. He finished seventh in the Heisman voting.
Hunter did not, however, win the award for best 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 went to South Carolina defensive end Kyle Kennard.
Hunter, somehow, was not a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. His coach Deion Sanders, himself a winner of the Thorpe Award, was not happy about that.
If Hunter doesn’t win the Heisman, it will likely go to Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty. It was no surprise that Jeanty won the Doak Walker Award for best running back on Thursday night. Jeanty already has the fourth-most yards in a single season in college football history. With at least one College Football Playoff game to go, Jeanty is 132 yards away from passing Barry Sanders for the most yards ever in a single season. At the moment, Jeanty’s 344 carries are the same number of carries Sanders had in his 1988 Heisman-winning season.
Both Ward and Gabriel are considered long shots to win the Heisman on Saturday night. Thursday, Ward won the Davey O’Brien Award given to the best quarterback.