Broncos cornerbacks marvel at Travis Hunter’s performance in CU win

The idea of playing more than 100 snaps in a football game sounds absurd. But Travis Hunter made it look easy during Colorado’s upset over No. 17 TCU on Saturday.

The sophomore cornerback/wide receiver played 144 snaps (80 defense and 64 offense), making plays that had the entire nation, including Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II, arguably a top two corner in the NFL, in disbelief.

“The plays he (made were) crazy,” Surtain said. “You don’t see that often, him playing (144) snaps (and) making plays on both sides of the ball.”

Hunter, who transferred to Colorado after playing for Deion Sanders at Jackson State last season, was an elite prospect out of high school. However, his performance against the Horned Frogs made it seem like he wasn’t from this planet. He caught 11 passes for 119 yards and also pulled off a diving interception near the CU goal line that had social media abuzz.

For Broncos cornerback Fabian Moreau, Saturday wasn’t his first time watching the Travis Hunter experience. Moreau attended one of Hunter’s high school games when he was with the Atlanta Falcons in 2021. He said seeing Hunter’s skillset translate to the college level has been “very impressive.”

“He’s going to go down as definitely one of the greatest athletes, for sure,” Moreau said.

Moreau thinks it will be hard for Hunter to keep playing the number of snaps he did against TCU. But he’s confident that Colorado will have a good recovery plan for Hunter. “He (doesn’t practice) much or somethin’ to keep doing that all year.”

Cornerback Tremon Smith said Hunter is built differently. Smith is a big supporter of Sanders and hopes to make a trip to Boulder for a game this season.