ON JEDIS, BARRY SANDERS, AND TRAVIS HUNTER

Luke Skywalker was battling Boba Fett in a fight to the death, while the old 32 inch box TV flickered in the background.  Even as an 11-year old, I knew that Luke Skywalker would prevail over the bad guys and this time was no different – Skywalker leaped over Boba Fett and, while in the air, swung his lightsaber downward in a circular motion, cutting Boba Fett in half.  (Right between the eyes, as Mark Johnson would say.)  

“No!” my friend Jed exclaimed.  “Why does he always have to win?”  

“Because he’s Luke Skywalker!” I answered.

At about that exact moment, my eyes wandered over to the old box TV.  

It was 1988, and the Buffs were playing Oklahoma State.  Colorado was 4-1 and led by players that would go on to become iconic Buffs:  Sal Aunese, Alfred Williams, Deon Figures.  Oklahoma State was good enough that my parents actually wanted to use our tickets, leaving me without tickets and instead with a playdate with Luke, Boba and Jed.  

Oklahoma State had the ball on the Colorado 1-yard line.  The Buffs defense was stout –they gave up only 16 points per game over the course of the 1988 season.  Oklahoma State’s running back, a short but stout jitterbug named Barry Sanders, was in the backfield.  Oklahoma State broke the huddle and, after a quick snap,  Mike Gundy — not yet a man, and not yet 40 — handed the ball to Sanders.  Sanders grabbed the ball and jumped up up up, hovering over several Buffs standing right in the hole, audaciously glancing at the endzone, then the ball, then the Buffs on the sideline.  He smiled while time stood still.  Touchdown. 

“What was that?” Jed asked.

I had to catch my breath.  “That was —- Luke Skywalker,” I whispered.

Sanders would go on to have the greatest individual season in NCAA football.  He rushed for 2,850 yards while scoring 44 touchdowns, breaking 34 NCAA records, and taking home the Heisman Trophy.  Sanders has held the NCAA rushing record for 36 years and it seems like it will never be broken.  As an 11-year old that would occasionally suffer from melancholy, I was confident I would never see a college football player as breathtaking as Barry Sanders.  I was correct — at least for another 37 years.

It was 2024, and the Buffs were playing UCF in Orlando. Colorado was 3-1, matching the start to the 2023 season (which season ended with the Buffs going 1-8 down the stretch).   Needless  to say, there remained many questions about Colorado’s team.  Winning on the road, particularly against an undefeated UCF, would answer some of those questions.

It is within this context that UCF’s quarterback, KJ Jefferson, dropped back from his own 26 yard line.  He scanned the field and saw his H-back, Evan Morris, wide open in the flat.  Quite reasonably, Jefferson threw him the ball. 

Travis Hunter was lined up as a wide corner and was playing a deep zone.  He was 9 yards behind Morris in a deep zone when Jefferson started his throwing motion.  Jefferson cocked his arm back.  Hunter planted his foot and exploded forward, bullet-like, audaciously believing that he could impact the play from the next neighborhood over.  He rocketed through the air, smiling at Jefferson with only an air of condescension, and somehow met the ball in the air before Morris could grab it.  Interception.

I lost my breath.

I hadn’t seen a player that left me quite as breathless in 37 years.  There was only one thing to do.

I texted Jed.  “That was Luke Skywalker.”

“Yep,” he responded.

The bizarre thing about Travis Hunter’s 2024 season is that this was only one of several jaw-dropping, gobsmacking plays.  His catch against Utah in the home finale this year, leaping up, under – between? — 3 defenders to snag the ball.  He interception against TCU in 2023, announcing himself to the college football world.  The greatest incomplete pass I have ever seen, against Utah in the home finale, where Sheduer Sanders threw a jump ball to Hunter, who jumped above 2 defenders, contorted his body mid-air, and nearly caught the ball with one hand while falling to the ground.  Let’s see Luke Skywalker try that.

Hunter played both sides of the ball as well as anyone ever has — as a cornerback, his 90.7 PFF coverage grade was higher than Pat Surtain’s overall PFF grade his senior year at Alabama (90.5), and as a wide receiver his  PFF receiving grade (89) was higher than Justin Jefferson’s PFF grade coming out of LSU (85.4).  Yep — read that again.  To have a player play on both sides of the ball play as seemingly effortlessly, and at such a high level, is something that we will never see again. 

Hunter went on to catch 96 balls for 1,258 yards and score 15 touchdowns in 2024, each seemingly more spectacular than the last.  On defense, Hunter was the definition of a lockdown corner with 32 tackles and 4 interceptions.  He won the Heisman Trophy for the best player in college football, the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best wide receiver, and the Bednarik Award for the nation’s top defensive player, among many, many others.

More importantly to me, however, is that I had the privilege to watch one of the two greatest college football players I’ve seen in my lifetime ply his trade for my beloved Colorado Buffaloes.  And every game, I got to feel like an 11-year old kid, waiting to see what Luke Skywalker was going to do to the bad guys.

-John