The University of Colorado Boulder’s football team’s Travis Hunter during their match against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Folsom Field on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Scott Tan/CU Independent)
In over 150 years of college football, the 2024 season stands as a phenomenon. For the first time ever, Buffs fans and football fans alike stand witness to a two-way hybrid athlete who not only plays 120 snaps a night but performs on both sides of the ball incomparably.
The University of Colorado’s Travis Hunter is doing something the sport hasn’t seen since the 90s. Going onto the field for nearly every play of the game and executing time and time again. What we’re seeing is extraordinary, but is it the greatest of all time?
Two other major names come up in that discussion. The University of Michigan’s Charles Woodson and the University of Georgia’s Champ Bailey. Both played cornerback and receiver similar to Hunter, but Woodson and Bailey also took back kicks.
First up is Charles Woodson, a 6’1” 200-pound monster from Fermont, Ohio. Woodson played at Michigan from 1995-1997 and was mainly a cornerback. He started 34 consecutive college football games after getting the starting job early his freshman year.
Although cornerback was Woodson’s primary position, he shined when he’d come onto the field to play wide receiver. Of the only 21 catches from two seasons of receiver that Woodson played, three were touchdowns and over 500 total yards got put in the books. He also scored twice more off the ground to bring his scrimmage total to five touchdowns.
During his 34 consecutive starts at corner, he miraculously snagged 16 interceptions across three seasons. Woodson put together a historic 1997 season, winning both the Heisman and the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year award. That season alone he had seven picks.
Charles Woodson would go on to be named a first-team All-American that season and was drafted a year later in the 1998 NFL Draft. Two years earlier was the beginning of our next candidate’s collegiate career, Champ Bailey.
Bailey took a slightly different route than Woodson, as he played his first season with Georgia strictly as a cornerback and then played his last two seasons as a two-way player. It all amalgamated perfectly in 1998 when he finished 7th in the Heisman voting.
In two years as a wide receiver, Bailey recorded five touchdowns and 978 receiving yards. He was a threat in the air and on the ground, with 59 receptions and just under 100 combined rushing yards. In the 97’ and 98’ seasons Bailey was on the field for almost every single play, including as Georgia’s primary kick returner.
So what separates Travis Hunter? Charles Woodson won a Heisman award playing both sides in 1997 at a high level. Champ Bailey was an All-American and won All-SEC first team. Woodson went 4th overall in 98’, and Bailey went 7th in 99’. But what sets Travis Hunter apart is consistency.
Charles Woodson was primarily a corner and only had 10 catches in 96’ and 11 in 97’. In the past two seasons, Hunter has brought in 117 receptions. Champ Bailey had eight interceptions across three seasons, and Hunter has five across fifteen games.
Travis has jumped in the Heisman odds, now in a safe first place ahead of contenders like Ashton Jeanty, Dillion Gabriel and Cam Ward. USA Today, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports all have Hunter as the number one overall selection in the 2025 NFL draft, which would beat out Woodson and Bailey.
All-in-all, Travis Hunter is generational. He is the greatest two-way player in college football history because he’s committed to both positions throughout his entire collegiate career and might even bring it into the NFL. Something Woodson and Bailey didn’t do.
He will likely add a Heisman award and the first overall pick to his resume. But before the NFL, he is focused on finishing his final college season in Colorado amid a conference title race.
Contact CU Independent football writer Baylan Wysuph at Baylan.Wysuph@colorado.edu
