Op-Ed: Colorado's Travis Hunter and the dreaded snap count
The playing status of Travis Hunter is the biggest storyline heading into Friday’s game against Stanford and it's not close. Amidst linebacker depth chart shuffling, Shedeur being the most-pressured QB in college football, the running game, the defensive front seven, none are a bigger story than the possible return of arguably college football's best player.
Hunter might be the Buffs best player in decades, regardless of position, and yet, the national media (and some local Denver outlets like Phillip Lindsay) still really don’t understand his talents. At least not like Coach Prime does.
The truly alarming part is Prime has been telling us all season how Travis works. Or in this case, how he works best. If Hunter can go today against Stanford, he will not be on a snap count. Let me say that again,
Travis Hunter will NOT be on a snap count.
I can make that statement with my whole chest because Coach Prime has said so multiple times. There seems to be an ongoing trend of things Deion Sanders tells the public, that the public in turn, decides to ignore.
It's not coach speak I assure you. Whether we’re talking about his status for this game or what position NFL teams should draft him to play. Travis is and always has been, wired differently.
The national media was concerned with his ability to play both ways at the frequency that he plays. The core argument was he can’t overextend himself at this rate, at this level. The problem with that logic is that it's backwards. They believed he was doing more or doing too much.
That’s who Travis is. He has never not played both ways going back to when he was 6-years-old. Playing both ways or playing the majority of snaps is only an overextension if it's different than who he normally is. That’s how Travis normally is. If that isn’t enough to convince you, Sanders has said on multiple occasions that if Travis doesn’t play both ways and the majority of those snaps, you aren’t getting the best version of Hunter.
This even extends to his conversations with NFL scouts. They often will ask, “should we look at him as a CB or a WR”? Prime’s response every time is both. If they try to restrict him to just CB or just WR or put him on a snap count, they will not be getting the Hunter we’ve been watching.
The final piece of evidence would be the Tuesday press conference in preparation for Stanford and the weekly Coaches’ Show which takes place every Thursday from the Velvet Elk Lounge (on 13th street in Boulder). In both cases this week, Coach Prime has mentioned that Travis has a “tremendous” chance to play, and if he plays, “he will not be on a snap count”. Words from the mouth of the man making the decision. This time, just believe him. Travis will not be on a snap count.
