Colorado Buffaloes two-way star Travis Hunter didn’t mince words while criticizing those questioning his abilities both on offense and defense. The cornerback and wide receiver capped off his spectacular season with a special delivery on both sides of the ball.
In the Week 14 game against Oklahoma State, in which the Buffaloes won 52-0, Hunter came up with an interception early in the first quarter. Then, on offense, he caught 10 receptions for 116 yards and three touchdowns. The performance was enough to boost his Heisman odds enough that it should come as no shock if his name is announced for the award on Dec. 14.
Travis Hunter Talks Those Who Question His Abilities
What Hunter does on the football field is almost unprecedented. The closest modern-day comparison, if there is anyone, could possibly be Shohei Ohtani, a hitter and starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
One narrative that people have been critical of about Hunter is that he neither leads receivers in yards nor leads defensive backs in tackles. However, as Hunter said, neither does he get as many targets on the offense, nor does the opposing quarterback pass the ball to the guy Hunter is up against in fear.
During Wednesday’s episode of “The Travis Hunter Show,” the Buffs’ star criticized everyone who had doubts about his abilities.
🔥 The Last Game. Humor & Facts. Travis Hunter speaks
"One of em should have been an INT. I ain't want to catch it because I wasn't getting the Jim Thorpe anyway. They telling me I'm not a top WR. I said aight I'm gonna show you "#skobuffs
📽️ @TravisHunterJr @Hboog32 pic.twitter.com/zKzGJFdGki— JaKi 🇺🇸 (@JaKiTruth)
“You know, they’re telling me I’m not a top receiver,” Hunter said. “I said, all right, I’m just going to show them what I can do on the offensive side of the ball. They keep telling me I’m not a top receiver. I was done talking. Some people, like I said before, haven’t even touched the grass before. They’re just behind the camera, behind a page talking crazy like they’ve played football before.
“Like I said, I’m going to show them. Then they’re going to say, ‘Oh, you did it in garbage time.’ Guess what? I did it without too many targets. I’m getting doubled every game.
“I don’t have defensive stats because I don’t get thrown at. So what do you want me to do? But they don’t care about that. They just want to see the stats,” Hunter added.
Deion Sanders’ Reply to Those Calling Out Hunter for Subpar Defensive Stats
On defense, Hunter has had 31 total tackles (20 solo), along with 11 assists, 11 passes defensed, one forced fumble, and four interceptions. There’s an argument that the cornerback doesn’t have a good number of tackles in his stats, questioning whether he’s a top-notch defensive back.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, a cornerback himself during his playing time, set the record straight, speaking in football terms on what the position really means and how stats are not everything.
“First of all, if a cornerback has eight tackles in the game, do you guys know what that means?” Sanders asked. “That means they caught six balls. That’s what it means. They caught six balls on him because two of those [tackles] were probably run support. So when you see a corner with a lot of tackles, it’s not a good sign. If you see a corner with a lot of tackles, they caught a lot of balls on him.”
What Sanders wanted to imply was the fact that if a cornerback has a higher number of tackles, that doesn’t necessarily mean a good thing. It means they are allowing the corresponding receiver to catch the ball.
