Colorado's Travis Hunter won the 2024 Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, making him the first two-way player to receive college football's most vaunted individual honor since Charles Woodson in 1997.
Hunter beat out fellow Heisman finalists Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and Miami quarterback Cam Ward to take home the hardware with 2,231 points. Jeanty finished a narrow second (2,017), followed by Gabriel (516) and Ward (229).
"I never thought I'd be in this position," Hunter said during his acceptance speech. "It's crazy. Your belief will take you a long way. It's actually crazy, man. Thank you, thank you, thank you. First, I want to thank my fiancée and my mother. They've been with me since the first time I had surgery my first year of college. They never took a step away from me. All the hard hours. All the hard days. All the times I didn't want to wake up and even get on my phone, look at football, y'all stayed with me. I'm very thankful for y'all.
"I'm thankful. I'm thankful for my mother. She took me out of Florida. Bad area, I'm always getting in trouble, to now look where I'm at. It's crazy.
"I want to thank coach Prime (Deion Sanders), (Colorado quarterback) Shadeur (Sanders), y'all changed my life forever."
As a cornerback/wide receiver, Hunter is a star on both sides of the ball for Deion Sanders' Buffaloes. He played a whopping 1,443 snaps -- roughly split evenly between offense and defense, plus a few more on special teams -- in 12 games for Colorado this season, per Pro Football Focus.
That kind of versatility puts him in an exclusive club in college football history, which bolstered Hunter's case for the Heisman. Other than Woodson, who was mainly a defensive back at Michigan, you have to go back several decades to find a player such as Hunter who made such an impact on both sides of the ball in a single season.
Hunter received first-team All-Big 12 honors as both a defensive back and a wide receiver, but he was also named the conference's 2024 Defensive Player of the Year, with 15 passes defended (tied for fifth in the FBS), four interceptions and a game-winning forced fumble.
On offense, Hunter ranks fifth in the FBS with 92 receptions for 1,152 yards (sixth) and 14 touchdowns (second). He had three games with 10 or more catches and seven outings with 100 or more receiving yards. He also ran for a touchdown versus Utah.
Hunter, a junior, told reporters during a conference call last month that he "for sure" plans to enter the 2025 NFL Draft. Underclassmen have until Jan. 15 to submit a petition to the NFL for special draft eligibility. Deion Sanders has said he expects Hunter to play for Colorado in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28 against BYU. The former five-star recruit first made headlines by committing to Sanders at Jackson State, then did so again in following Sanders to Boulder.
Gabriel, the 2024 Big Ten Offensive Player and Quarterback of the Year, led Oregon to a 13-0 season, a Big Ten championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming College Football Playoff. Ward lifted the Hurricanes in his first year at Miami, earning ACC Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year. Jeanty earned his second Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year award this season, racking up an FBS-best 2,613 all-purpose yards and 30 touchdowns.
They were all worthy finalists, but Hunter was in a class of his own this past season -- and perhaps for many seasons to come.
