Travis Hunter's Former Coach Explains What Patriots Might Be Getting

Assuming they don’t trade down, when the New England Patriots take the podium to announce the fourth overall selection of the 2025 NFL Draft, it very well could be Travis Hunter.

If he’s still available, that is.

If two of the top-three selections aren’t quarterbacks, it’s difficult to imagine a Hunter being attainable for New England. However, given the number of teams hungry for a franchise passer, the Patriots could see the Colorado Buffalo fall to No. 4.

Putting aside all of his accolades prior to the end of his final collegiate season, if you aren’t already familiar with Hunter’s talent, the two-way phenom won the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, the Fred Biletnikoff Award, the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Lott Trophy, his second Paul Hornung Award, he was a Unanimous All-American, and both the Associated Press and Sporting News named Hunter the College Football Player of the Year.

There are additional awards to rattle off, but you get the point.

For Lenny Gregory, he watched it unfold from up close and then from afar.

Gregory was his varsity head coach from 2018 through 2021. He first came across Hunter when he arrived at Collins Hill High School in Georgia after relocating from Florida in the summer before his freshman year.

On SI connected with Coach Gregory this week for a look back to the rise of one of the most special college football players of the last decade, and a potential early-first-round selection for the Patriots.

I understand Travis arrived out of the blue going into his freshman year. When you first saw him, what did you see?

“The first time I met him was a Monday the week we were doing conditioning tests at the end of the summer. It was a week before we started in pads, so we do a 200-yard conditioning test.

“They’ve got to run six 200’s and they’re timed with a one-minute rest. By position, there’s specific times that they’ve got to do. He hadn’t been with us all off-season long. He’d just showed up that week.

“He went out there and just smoked every upperclassman that we had. The kid ran all six of them and he wasn’t even out of breath. (Laughs). It was incredible.

“I’d never seen anything like that. Players were lying around and dying. You’d have thought we were just totally punishing them. Travis is just standing there and he’s not even out of breath.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘What in the world is this kid?’ I’d never seen anything like him.”

How would you explain the level of talent you had at that school and had seen up to that point?

“You look at our school, Collins Hill, and…probably on average anywhere from seven, eight-plus kids per year would sign in what is now a Power Four Conference, you know? So, we had a lot of talent.

“At that school, for a kid to walk in as a 14-year old freshman and just dominate Day One, it was like, ‘What in the world do we have here? This kid is special.”

Colorado superstar Travis Hunter has won the Heisman. Scouted him as a sophomore and a junior at Collins Hill and no doubt was a five star very early in his high school career. Exceptional talent and a good person. Well deserved. pic.twitter.com/58Kws78t2g
— Tom Lemming (@LemmingReport) December 15, 2024

Once the season got rolling, do you remember whether it was the first game or early in his freshman season when Travis did something or made a play that proved he could convert that raw talent into special plays on Friday nights?

“In a normal year, he probably wouldn’t have played as a freshman. He was really small. We were down for Collins Hill. It was an off year. But he was so talented skill-wise that we had to play him on varsity.

“I remember we went over to Marietta High School, and Arik Gilbert, he was a five-star tight end for Marietta, and I just remember Travis playing safety, and defending him, and knocking the ball down, scrapping, and holding his own as a scrawny little ninth-grader. He’s sitting there competing with a five-star who ended up signing with LSU as an SEC tight end.”

Heading into the draft, NFL coaches and experts continue to debate which side of the ball Travis will play his best football as a pro. It seems most say cornerback but there are some who legitimately believe he should play both ways. Did you and your staff at Collins Hill also have trouble deciding how to best juggle him across all three phases?

“I’ve always kind of had the philosophy that if you’ve got a really good skill player, you should play him both ways if you can do it. Travis is so talented, he can do everything. Football is just effortless to the kid. He’s so natural. And probably the most impressive thing with Travis is his football IQ.

“In today’s world, very few kids watch football like he does. He’s truly obsessed with it. If you watch him on his phone, he’s watching football stuff. He’s not on there playing different games and all that stuff. I mean, he’s literally watching football.

“He asks questions as a ninth grader, very mature questions. I remember taking him on an unofficial visit to Auburn. He was a rising sophomore. It was going into his sophomore year. I just remember him sitting there with the defensive staff and they were talking coverage, and Travis is explaining things, what he sees, and what his reads are.

“He was a highly intelligent football player.”

Was there anything about his skill set that really stood out to you where you were, again, saying to yourself, ‘Holy smokes, I’ve never seen that before.'?

“Everything.”

“Everything. The thing that would always stand out to us watching film on him was his ability from a dead standstill in the middle of the field to his acceleration from zero to 100 miles an hour, he can do it better than anybody.

“You just watch him play after play. He’d be standing there and the ball would be thrown on the hash, and he’d just take off and go intercept it. It was crazy.”

Travis Hunter in HS at Collins Hill (GA) 👀@TravisHunterJr @_sam_horn @CHHS_Sports pic.twitter.com/yDP4Nn24BN
— SportsCenter NEXT (@SCNext) September 3, 2023

What’s that been like for you, personally, to watch a former player you coached do what he did at the next level, win the Heisman, and now be in line to be a top NFL Draft pick?

“It’s really surreal to think about that first encounter with him, and everything that he dreamed of. From Day One, his dream was to go and play and be like Deion Sanders, and then see him go play for Deion Sanders. To see him be that great player that he’s become.

“As a high school coach, you never really think about coaching a kid that’s going to win the Heisman. What are the odds of that? It’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around.

“Nothing surprises me, nothing, because I saw it every day. I saw this kid’s passion and love for the game. He wants to improve and he wants to be great. He takes a lot of pride in being the best, man.”

On having Hunter and 2022-class Missouri quarterback signee Sam Horn as teammates at Collins Hill…

“When our practices would end, Travis would keep our quarterback out on the field. It was every practice. You’d see Sam Horn and Travis Hunter working on certain routes and timing and things that they’d think would be there in a game, back-shoulder, a fade ball, you name it.

“It was kind of neat as you’re walking across the field, you see these two great players that are arguably the best quarterback-receiver combo in high school football history. They were two players in high school who were such great players yet they worked so hard to make sure that they were on the same page.

“That’s not normal and I knew that at the time. I just remember thinking, man, what a blessing to be able to coach these two kids. Travis has done what Travis does when he showcased his ability.

“I’ve been very blessed in my career to be around a lot of great players. I’ve coached guys that went on and played in the NFL, and a lot of guys that played in college.

“I think six times I coached in the Under Armour (All-American) Game down in Orlando, and never have I seen a kid with the skill set of Travis Hunter. Never. I had already been down there and coached kids like Vernon Hargreaves III and different unbelievable kids at DB. And I knew what that elite level looked like. And then seeing Travis, it’s like, ‘This guy’s different.’

“He does stuff that those guys can’t do.”

“You know what’s scary? I don’t think Travis has played his best football. You look at him and he plays both ways, if he were able to dial-in and just play one position, I mean, how great can that guy get, you know?’”

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