Travis Hunter: Colorado's win vs. North Dakota State 'gave us a lot of hope'
Year 2 of the Deion Sanders era at Colorado got off to an interesting start as FCS powerhouse North Dakota State came to Folsom Field. The Buffaloes found themselves facing a halftime deficit before a strong showing after the break, and Travis Hunter stole the show.
Hunter was Shedeur Sanders’ top target on offense. He hauled in seven receptions – tied with Jimmy Horn Jr. for the team lead – for 132 yards and three touchdowns, including a highlight-reel catch for his final trip to the end zone. Sanders finished the night with 445 passing yards and four touchdowns while Horn had 198 yards and a score.
It ended up coming down to the final play, but Cam Miller’s Hail Mary pass ended up short of the end zone. That sealed Colorado’s 31-26 victory, and Hunter summed up the impact of the win with Scott Van Pelt after the game as the Buffs lift the curtain on their second year under Coach Prime.
“It gave us a lot of hope,” Hunter said. “We know we’ve got to keep going in, keep watching film. It got the guys to know that we’ve got a good team right here. We’ve got to get the plan, we’ve got to get our eyes in the right spot. That’s how they got a lot of touchdowns tonight. We didn’t have our eyes in the right spot, we didn’t read our keys.
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“So we know we’ve got to get back in there and go to work. Coach is probably not finna let us off tomorrow. We’re finna come in here and work.”
Hunter didn’t waste any time making his presence felt. Sanders found him on the first drive for a 41-yard touchdown to give Colorado a lead, and the two connected again in the third quarter to jump back out in front. But the three-yard reception to make it 31-20 proved to be the difference, and it became an early candidate for catch of the year.
As for how it came together, Hunter actually predicted he was going to score. From there, he just had to stick with it and eventually make the catch.
“I just had a lot of confidence in myself,” Hunter said. “I told my coach, ‘Third down, give me the ball. We’re gonna win this game. We’re gonna get up out of here.’ I did what I had to do – catch the ball, get a touchdown and let’s go.”
Deion Sanders on Travis Hunter’s performance: ‘That’s who he is’
North Dakota State wasn’t going to be an easy match for Colorado on Thursday’s big stage. The Bison have been a powerhouse at the FCS level, and Deion Sanders even pointed out the caliber of opponent his team was going to face.
That’s why Travis Hunter said CU had to have the respect for NDSU. In fact, he did plenty of homework to get ready for the matchup.
“We had the respect for them,” Hunter said. “Every opponent, we’ve got to respect. We came out – this is my first time playing with this group of guys, so we know we’ve got to respect everybody. This is our first time playing with each other. We don’t know how each other plays. So we have to go out and respect them.
“We watch a lot of film. I watched 10 hours of film this week on just those guys. We had to respect them, and it showed why we had to respect them because they came out to play.”
As for Hunter’s huge night, Sanders didn’t sound surprised. He said the two-way star shows off his ability in practice, and he just did it in a game setting Thursday night.
“Travis, that’s who he is,” Sanders told ESPN’s Quint Kessenich. “We get a chance to see that every practice, every day. He don’t take days off unless we force him to. But that’s just who he is. The whole receiving corps, the offensive line did a great job protecting our quarterback. And our quarterback was excellent.”