Travis Hunter Wins 2024 Heisman Trophy
Two-way star Travis Hunter won college football’s most prestigious award Saturday night, the 2024 Heisman Trophy award. He completed an incredible 2024 season, earning 1st team honors on both sides of the ball as an All-American and Big 12 star. He played an amazing 1300+ snaps as an impact receiver and shutdown cornerback.
As a big-play wide receiver and a lockdown cornerback, he dominated on both sides of the ball for coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes. He was the catalyst of an impressive turnaround at Colorado, going from 4-8 in 2023 when he missed over 3 games because of injuries to the current 9-3 record. He transferred to Colorado along with new HC Sanders prior to the 2023 season. The 23rd-ranked Buffaloes received their 1st bowl bid in four years and will face #17 BYU (10-2) in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28.
Hunter has stated he will play vs BYU, rather than skip the game to prepare for the NFL Draft. He is ranked the #1 prospect overall by Frank Coyle of Draft Insiders. The junior has planned to pass up his senior season in Boulder.
Hunter received 552 first-place votes and 2,231 points. Running back Ashton Jeanty of Boise State was the runner-up with 309 first-place votes and 2,017 points, making it the closest margin of victory since 2009.
Hunter was on 94% of ballots and earned 80.14% of the possible points, the 11th highest in Heisman Trophy history. He is only the second defensive player winning the award, following Charles Woodson in 1997. Woodson also made big plays on offense, but he played selected reps on offense over the season and not nearly as much as Hunter on that side of the ball.
Hunter played 669 defensive snaps and 687 on offense — a total of 1,356 that was 434 more than any other FBS player. He was on the field for 84% of his team’s total snaps; no other FBS player accounted for more than 56%.
Hunter had an amazing week, winning multiple awards, in addition to the Heisman Trophy. He won Draft Insiders’ Player of the Year award, the Associated Press Player of the Year, the Walter Camp Award as national player of the year, the Chuck Bednarik Award as the top defensive player, the Fred Biletnikoff Award for best wide receiver, the Paul Hornung award and Ronnie Lott Trophy.
Two QBs – Dillon Gabriel of Oregon and Cam Ward of Miami finished third and fourth in the balloting for the 90th Heisman Trophy, presented annually since 1935 to the nation’s most outstanding player. This year’s ceremony was held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
It marked only the fifth time since 2000 that a QB didn’t win. The last time no signal-caller placed in the top two was 2015, when running backs, Derrick Henry of Alabama and Christian McCaffrey of Stanford finished 1-2 in the voting.
Travis Hunter – 2024 Heisman Season Key Numbers
2nd Heisman winner from Colorado (Rashaan Salaam 1994)
2nd Full-time defensive player to win the Heisman (Charles Woodson (1997)
3rd Straight transfer player to win the Heisman (Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams)
5th Receiver to win the Heisman and first since DeVonta Smith in 2020
Heisman Trophy Voting
Voting for the 90th Heisman Trophy
Player School 1st 2nd 3rd Total
- Travis Hunter Colorado 552 261 53 2,231
- Ashton Jeanty Boise State 309 517 56 2,017
- Dillon Gabriel Oregon 24 52 340 516
- Cam Ward Miami 6 24 163 229
- Cam Skattebo Arizona St. 3 18 125 170
- Bryson Daily Army 3 7 46 69
- Tyler Warren Penn St. 1 7 35 52
- Shedeur Sanders Colorado 1 7 30 47
- Kurtis Rourke Indiana 2 3 10 22
- Kyle McCord Syracuse 0 1 7 9
Frank Coyle is a long-time scout with nationwide ties with NFL and college coaches, scouts and player agents. He is a member of the FWAA and voter in College player awards – Heisman, Outland, Nagurski, Lombardi, Thorpe, Biletnikoff etc for the past 30+ years. He writes College Football Mondays weekly during the season. He was a longtime scouting consultant for the Senior Bowl, the nation’s premier postseason All-star game. He does sports radio shows for CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports and Sporting News on a year-round basis related to NFL and College Football especially during the postseason team and All-star Bowl time. He has worked for CBS Sports, USA Today, NBC Sports, Yahoo and Rivals sports publications and web sites.
