Deion Sanders and Colorado football will be without Travis Hunter Jr. for at least another week. More than likely, the Buffaloes’ two-way star will make his return at the end of the month.
Hunter, who was taken to the hospital after taking a brutal late hit during the first half of the Week 3 game against Colorado State, suffered from a lacerated liver. He did not come out of the game at first, but the team doctors recommended that he did not continue, which may have saved his life.
Although the Rams player who laid the dirty hit received death threats from fans, Hunter was not angry with him and they recently met up in a showing of solidarity. There is no bad blood.
However, the hit left Hunter to miss games against No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 USC, even though he texted Coach Prime and really wanted to play. Despite not being dressed on the field, the true sophomore phenom played an important role from the sidelines — on both sides of the ball.
Coach Travis Hunter Jr. was a big factor in Colorado’s comeback vs. USC.
Cormani McClain had Hunter in his ear all afternoon after getting called out by his head coach during the week and played out of his mind. Sanders gave the five-star freshman defensive back his flowers in the locker room after the best performance of McClain’s young career.
Freshman wide receiver Omarion Miller also had a breakout game against the Trojans with seven catches for 196 yards and a touchdown. Hunter was coaching him up from the sideline as well!
Colorado will travel to Arizona State this weekend before returning home to Boulder to host Stanford. It will then take its bye week ahead of a crucial road game at UCLA.
If Coach Prime gets his way, Hunter will continue to serve in his role as a player-coach for each of the next two games. Sanders said on Tuesday that he hopes to have Hunter back on the field in Los Angeles on Oct. 28 and wants him to continue to heal through the bye week.
Hunter, obviously, wants to get back on the field sooner than later. He wanted to play last weekend.
It will be interesting to see whether the coach or the player gets his way. In either scenario, though, Travis Hunter Jr. is ruled out for Saturday’s game in Tempe.