BOULDER — I swear on my John Stearns rookie card, if Travis Hunter plays, the Buffs beat USC.
Instead of throwing six touchdowns at Folsom Field on Sept. 30, daring CU to climb out of the Tonga Trench, Trojans QB Caleb Williams slings it for, say, four scores. Hunter picks the future No. 1 pick off twice. The Buffs come all the way back.
Bedlam ensues. Lincoln Riley eats a giant crow burger, Joel Klatt kisses Gus Johnson on national television, Will Ferrell weeps, and the Deion Sanders hype train revs at 250 mph instead of the usual 195.
We’ll never know, of course. Hunter was there that day, stuck coaching like crazy from the sidelines, all because he was recovering from a lacerated liver. An injury suffered on a blindside hit last month while running around … as a receiver.
Sanders has intimated that when Hunter returns, starting with the Buffs’ matchup against Stanford late Friday, that there will be no pitch counts, no conditions, no restrictions, no caveats. Coach Prime is a man of his word. Sanders’ word to the prodigiously gifted Hunter, in whom he sees more than a little of himself, was that the CU sophomore will go where no Power 5 football player has gone this century: full-time cornerback, full-time wideout.
But here’s the thing, though — the Buffs don’t need him. Not on offense, at any rate.
Perhaps the only silver lining of a three-week stretch in which CU, in Hunter’s absence, got blasted at Oregon (a 42-6 humbling), ran out of time against USC (a 48-41 defeat) and staved off Arizona State in Tempe (a 27-24 win) is that Buffs signal-caller Shedeur Sanders got to try out other toys when the chips were down.
If Hunter plays wideout against the Trojans, do we get to witness a record-breaking afternoon from freshman receiver Omarion Miller?
If No. 12 is good to go against the Sun Devils, does senior wideout Javon Antonio get a chance to bail the Buffs out late?
Hunter isn’t just CU’s best player. He’s arguably the best player in college football. Dude is him, as the cool kids say. One of one.
But before the Buffs dismiss the idea of pumping the brakes on some of Hunter’s offensive snaps, consider this: The gap between No. 12 and the rest of the cornerback options is twice the gulf, for now, between Hunter and the CU receiver corps.
During the Buffs’ first three games, with Hunter patrolling the boundary, opponents threw for seven touchdowns and six picks, averaging 265 yards through the air per tilt.
Over the next three contests, with two dance partners featuring Heisman contenders behind center in Oregon’s Bo Nix and USC’s Williams, things got ugly: 10 scores against just two interceptions, with CU foes averaging of 340 yards through the air.
“I haven’t seen someone look so (darned) natural on both sides of the ball since Charles (Woodson),” ESPN’s Louis Riddick, who’s part of the network’s coverage team for Friday evening, told me recently.
“Travis, in some ways, he almost looks … maybe it’s because sometimes defensive backs can kind of be negated from a game, but he looks even better at wide receiver than he does at cornerback. Which is amazing. His ball skills — it’s an unteachable skill that he has. That’s not (a thing) where one of his high-school coaches taught him that. He was literally born that way. He is a unique, athletic freak.”
Mere mortals do not make that diving, goal-line pick at TCU. Alas, the rest of the Buffs’ cornerbacks, to this point, remain comparatively ephemeral, even with true freshman Cormani McClain grinding his way outta the Coach Prime doghouse.
Hunter is too valuable a defender to lose (again) because he got smushed (again) while attempting to catch a ball over the middle. CSU’s Henry Blackburn and the Buffs two-way star made peace, to the credit of both young men, flipping the narrative of their unfortunate encounter into a charitable donation. But there will be other cheap shots. There will be other hits that a helpless, 185-pound Hunter won’t see coming.
The Heisman Trophy feels like a long shot. As for the long view, after Friday night, the Buffs won’t see an offense that’s averaging fewer than 29 points per game until that Nov. 25 visit to Utah.
And the bruising Utes, based on what we’ve seen so far, still present something of a matchup problem. In MMA parlance, CU is at its best as a stand-up fighter, fast and light on its feet. Utah, the Wisconsin of the West, wants to get you on the ground, wrap you like a boa constrictor and pummel away until you submit. Oregon State, the Iowa of the West minus the nepotism, presents another potential problem along the same, battering, physical lines
At least the Buffs get that particular cage match in Folsom on Nov. 4. Hopefully with Hunter carrying the flag.
“(His skills) don’t come around every often,” Riddick stressed. “Deion sees it, too. That’s why he’s so invested in him.”
Hunter the wideout is a bonus. Hunter the cornerback is essential. To a defense. To a bowl game. And to a dream too close, and too sweet, to let slip away now.