Travis Hunter is not among oddsmakers’ favorites for the Heisman

Only four non-quarterbacks have won the Heisman since the millennium began, making it rare for somebody other than a signal caller to get honored at season’s end in New York. Even more uncommon than the non-quarterback-Heisman is a two-way player thriving at this level of football and it’s this notion that may give Travis Hunter a real shot at this year’s award for top player in college ball.

Some of college football’s top voices are in after Hunter capped his 130 receiving yards, two touchdown night on Saturday with a forced fumble on the goal line to seal Colorado’s comeback overtime win.

“That tackle there by Travis Hunter may have put him in the driver’s seat for the Heisman Trophy,” Paul Finebaum said on ESPN.

“If your Heisman list doesn’t start with Travis Hunter, you are not doing this right,” Joel Klatt posted on social media.

Yet the bookies aren’t on board with their list—well, kind of. Hunter isn’t among the favorites but he’s also got the shortest or second-shortest odds for non-quarterback depending on where you look. So Vegas is still riding with the overwhelming history of this being a quarterback award before considering Hunter beginning the question of what needs to be done for somebody playing 150 snaps a game to win the trophy.

Post-Week 4 Heisman Odds

Cam Ward, Miami, QB (+450)
Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss, QB (+500)
Jalen Milroe, Alabama, QB (+700)
Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee, QB (+950)
Dillon Gabriel, Oregon, QB (+1,000)
Carson Beck, Georgia, QB (+1,400)
Quinn Ewers, Texas, QB (+1,500)
Will Howard, Ohio State, QB (+2,000)
Ashton Jeanty, Boise State, RB (+2,000)
Travis Hunter, Colorado WR/CB (+2,000)

Hunter ranks in the top five among all Power Four wide receivers in receptions (37), yards (472), and touchdowns (five). All the while he’s allowed catches on 11 of 14 balls thrown his way on defense for just 75 yards (6.8 YPC) with one interception and a PBU. Opposing offenses are throwing at him 9.9% of the time in the 142 snaps he’s played in coverage. In 2023, Hunter played 1,102 snaps—he’s already at 524 this season which is almost 200 more than anyone in college football—including some Nevada linemen who played an extra Week 0 game and have yet to have a bye week. Again, what he’s doing with those snaps—getting nearly a buck fifty this weekend is remarkable—graded as Colorado’s top defensive player and third-best offensive player by Pro Football Focus.

There hasn’t been somebody who has seriously played both sides of the ball at this high of a level since Champ Bailey in 1998 and even then it wasn’t as full-time as Hunter. But you can go back just one more year to 1997 for something else—the last and only time in modern college football history that a defender won the award, Charles Woodson. Hunter would be the first full-time defender since Woodson to win it—though Woodson did play a limited amount on offense. Should Hunter take the award home, there hasn’t been a true two-way player score the honor since the legendary Ernie Davis in 1961, who was forced to play both sides due to college football’s archaic limited substitution rule at the time.