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Travis Hunter understandably cleaned up when the lion’s share of awards honoring the best college football players in the country were handed out on Thursday night. However, there was one trophy he probably shouldn’t have won: the Biletnikoff he earned at the expense of San Jose State WR Nick Nash.
All signs point to Colorado’s two-way standout Travis Hunter winning the Heisman Trophy in a landslide when the most sought-after individual prize in college football is presented on Saturday; Ashton Jeanty literally gave him a run for his money, but the star who played WR and CB for the Buffaloes certainly made a very solid case for himself.
Hunter logged a grand total of 1,356 snaps on offense and defense over the course of 12 games where he hauled in 92 receptions for 1,154 yards and snagged 14 yards. That’s pretty impressive on its own, but he supplemented those numbers with 33 total tackles, four interceptions, and a forced fumble as a member of the Colorado secondary.
On Thursday night, Hunter’s name was mentioned more than anyone else at the 2024 College Football Awards show where he won the Chuck Bednarik Award given to the nation’s best defensive player, the Fred Biletnikoff Award presented to the top receiver, and the Walter Camp Award reserved for the Player of the Year.
However, there’s a very strong argument that second trophy didn’t go to the man who deserved it most.
Hunter has obviously benefitted from being in the spotlight that comes with playing at Colorado since Deion Sanders arrived in Boulder, and while he was undoubtedly one of the best receivers in the country this year, there was another who came out on top in basically every significant category: San Jose State wideout Nick Nash.
The Spartans initially recruited Nash as a QB before he pivoted to wide receiver in 2023 ahead of a season where he had 48 receptions for 728 yards and scored 8 TDs. However, he turned into an absolute beast this year, as his 106 receptions, 1,382 receiving yards, and 16 TDs put him at the top of every single one of those categories.
The only real knock on Nash is that he was a member of an SJSU team in the Mountain West with a strength of schedule that was ranked as the 103rd weakest in the country compared to Colorado’s 61st, but he still finished with 230 more yards than Hunter while averaging more per reception and outdoing him by a couple of touchdowns.
When you consider the Biletnikoff Award is given to the “season’s outstanding college football receiver,” I’m not sure how you can genuinely claim Hunter was more worthy than Nash was. It may not be the biggest travesty in the grand scheme of things, but it’s pretty obvious the voters missed the mark here.