Rise of the Two-Way Player?

Nope! But this is still cool

Thank you for reading The Dope. You’re the engine that drives the train.

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The Heisman Trophy voting is generally inscrutable, but there’s no doubt about what happened this weekend. Colorado’s Travis Hunter won the award because, when voters watched him, they not only saw football practiced at a mile-high contemporary level. They also saw something that felt like a dusty page torn out of a 1940s yearbook: a two-way player, just killing it.

Not that such an image would sway all voters. It’s not like everybody on the Heisman voting rolls grew up with coaches who wore fedoras and trench coats.

Still, this was the feel-good aspect of a story that conceivably could have gone the other way. After all, Hunter plays for Deion Sanders at Colorado, and there are few more divisive figures in college grid than Sanders.

Hunter is also a classic NIL guy, which doesn’t always make people love you. He followed Sanders from Jackson State to Boulder two years ago in large measure because that move meant more exposure, a bigger stage. A bigger stage in Division I football right now can translate into many millions of dollars derived from the use of Hunter’s name, image and likeness — for which he is now, by law, open to negotiate compensation. Although they’re only estimates, those NIL estimates for Hunter run to $5 million.

He’s a modern athlete. But Hunter really is a two-way player, and there’s just nothing more throwback in the world. Everybody around college football seems to be in love with the concept, if only because it feels so utterly out of time.

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Hunter is an elite defensive back. He plays cornerback, like Sanders did. He’s also a terrific receiver who has 1,152 yards and 15 touchdowns, with a bowl game left to play this season (assuming he competes). He will play on Sundays really soon.

This year has been, for him, an extraordinary work load. Hunter played 709 snaps on offense and 713 snaps on defense for the 9-3 Buffaloes. He was on the field all the time, and nobody does that anymore. Even Deion, with his insane athleticism, was mostly a defender/returner in college and the NFL.

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I believe Heisman voters responded to the sheer glory of Hunter’s effort. Don’t get me wrong: Hunter’s offensive statistics are impressive, and he made 32 tackles and had four interceptions on defense. But look, the guy who finished second to him in the Heisman voting only needs 132 yards in the College Football Playoff to break Barry Sanders’ all-time single season rushing record of 2,628 yards, which Sanders set at Oklahoma State more than 35 years ago. (Sanders needed fewer games, of course.)

"I really felt like I should've walked away with the award, but kudos to Travis for winning," that running back, Ashton Jeanty of Boise State, told reporters Saturday after finishing as the Heisman runner-up.

Hey, in any other year…

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College football is in a weird state of flux in almost every imaginable way. Players are fleeing programs in between semesters, bound for the transfer portal. Their short-term decisions, once guided by playing time or program loyalty, are now heavily compromised by potential NIL payouts. Coaches are back on their heels, and university administrations have mostly responded by blowing up conferences and attempting to create super-leagues.

Into this breach came Travis Hunter, who ran out there and played all the time and played his keister off and didn’t take breaks. He was the old school of old school, even though the rewards he’ll reap are of the most modern variety.

In a rapidly changing landscape, he gave a few people — maybe a lot of people — the feeling that they were watching something that they could have watched a full generation ago. Two generations, maybe. It may be illusory, but it sure was comforting. That’s got to be worth a Heisman vote, right?