Travis Hunter’s Heisman odds take big hit after suffering injury

The Heisman Trophy race shifted again this past weekend with the biggest faller in the odds being last week’s biggest riser—Colorado Buffaloes star Travis Hunter.

The do-it-all player left the Buffs battle with Kansas State in the second quarter due to an injury. The lump appeared to impact Hunter’s shoulder, as he left for the locker room before halftime and came back onto the sideline but was never considered for getting back in the game. Head coach Deion Sanders didn’t have much to say postgame about Hunter’s status moving forward so it’s possible he could miss time.

The possibility of missed games combined with two weeks of almost no performance thanks to a bye week and an injury have driven Hunter’s odds way down. The defensive back and wide receiver was just behind favorite Ashton Jeanty for chances of winning the award in New York later this year. Now, Hunter has fallen for a tie for fifth according to the book,s and is back out to quadruple digits on the line for the first time since after Week 4.

Before Hunter left the game against K-State he had just three catches for 26 yards before coming off the field. Colorado’s defense noticeably got worse without him and so too did the offense, who crazily lost four wide receivers, including Hunter, to injury during the game.

Post-Week 7 Heisman Odds

Ashton Jeanty, Boise State, RB (+160)
Dillon Gabriel, Oregon, QB (+400)
Cam Ward, Miami, QB (+650)
Jalen Milroe, Alabama, QB (+1,000)
Travis Hunter, Colorado, WR/CB (+1,200)
Cade Klubnik, Clemson, QB (+1,200)

Jeanty’s chances rose again after he led Boise State to a 28-7 win at Hawaii. The Broncos runner picked up 217 yards on 31 rushes, adding a touchdown on the ground while also snagging three catches for 20 yards and a touchdown through the air.

The reigning Moutain West Offensive Player of the Year has firmly grabbed the nation’s hearts. The Boise State junior has 126 carries this season, gaining an NCAA-best 1,248 yards already with an NCAA-best 17 touchdowns. Jeanty’s stats in just six games rival his production from all of last season and that’s because this fall the runner is gaining a ludicrous 9.9 yards per rushing attempt, which is the best in the nation. The No. 15 Broncos have used their star back to get off to a 5-1 start with the only loss coming at the buzzer to No. 7 Oregon.

What Hunter’s injury did do to the Heisman chase is bring the quarterbacks back into the race, which was expected to happen at some point. Only four players that weren’t QBs have won the award since 2000, meaning the gunslingers will be in this race until the very end. Last week it looked over for all QBs besides Ward but Gabriel is now the favorite at the position.

If Hunter can go against Arizona this coming week he still can climb back for a chance at history.

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.