By Emily McLaughlin
The University of Colorado’s football star player Travis Hunter is missing the next three weeks with an injury caused by a late hit. Hunter received the injury on Saturday, Sept. 16 against Colorado State.
The quarterback for Colorado, Shedeur Sanders, attempted to throw a deep pass to Hunter along the sidelines during the Saturday game. Henry Blackburn, the Colorado State safety was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty when he lowered his shoulder into Hunter just moments after the football hit the ground.
It was clear that the hit was made with intention and not just for the game. On Twitter, ESPN showed the clip of the way the play went down. With Hunter’s teammates there to defend him after the call, the lack of sportsmanship Blackburn showed gave heated discussion among Hunter’s teammates, the crowd, and the commentators.
Hunter continued to stay on the ground just after the hit occurred and stayed on the ground as he received medical attention. Returning to the game, he made a tackle in the second quarter. But as the game continued into the third quarter, he was taken to the hospital.
“I know Travis like a book, he probably is going to want to be out for two weeks, but we’ve got to make sure his health is more important than this game” said Colorado head coach Deion Sanders at his post-game press conference.
Hunter’s first year with Sanders at Colorado, has shown nothing but greatness. Hunter has become one of the biggest college football stars this season due to his ability on both offense and defense. As a wide receiver as well as cornerback, Hunter has made his presence known.
According to The Sporting News,Hunter has played in 183 snaps on defense and 157 snaps on offense coming into Saturday’s game.
With the amazing successes of Hunter, he was one of the early nominees for the Heisman Trophy. With his early candidacy, Hunter has shown it is clear he is an important asset to the team. However, Hunter’s injury has made the early nominee plummet.
“DraftKings Sportsbook has taken Hunter off Heisman Trophy watch in light of his injury.”
The effect of not having Hunter there with his teammates on the field is showing to become a troubling factor for the team’s performance. Losing Hunter for three weeks has made the team worried about how they will do without Hunter’s multi-positional talents.
“The bad thing about losing Travis, it’s like you’re losing two players at once (ESPN)” said Colorado defensive back Shilo Sanders.
Without their star offense and defense player, they will not have a lineup for the first Pac-12 contests for the season. But they will be playing No. 10 Oregon,No. 5 USC, and Arizona State in the next three weeks.
With the unfortunate news of Hunter not being able to play, the team is going to be up against the highest-ranking quarterbacks in all of college football:Caleb Williams of USC and Bo Nix of Oregon.
Having the unfortunate news continue, Oregon ranks third and USC ranks fourth in yards per game this season. It is going to be pretty hard for Shedeur Sanders not to have Hunter there to be his target for the win.