Should Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter have gotten more recognition after their Week 1 performances against North Dakota State? Deion Sanders thinks so.
The Colorado coach wondered on his weekly coaches show Thursday why his quarterback and star cornerback/wide receiver weren’t an even bigger part of the college football discourse following Colorado’s 31-26 victory last Thursday. He even joked that Sanders and Hunter didn’t get the attention he felt they deserved because he was their head coach.
“You’ve got a guy who threw for the most yards in college football, you’ve got a guy who’s proved he’s the most spectacular player in college football,” Sanders said. “Shouldn’t those two be talked about all week about the two leading Heisman guys or the weekly award that was given out should have gone to those two guys? But it’s almost like, ‘No, we can’t do that, their coach is Deion Sanders, we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to let him get away with that.’”
Shedeur Sanders threw for 445 yards and four TDs against the Bison. Hunter caught three of those TDs and played nearly every snap on both offense and defense.
Colorado is a team that’s hyper-aware of the coverage that it receives and perhaps it was looking for more love than it got after beating an FCS team by five. Yes, North Dakota State has been the best FCS program over the past decade. But there’s a significant difference between the Bison and many of the teams Colorado will play in the Big 12 this year.
Besides, Colorado almost blew the game. A brutal coaching decision to throw the ball on first down with less than two minutes to play allowed North Dakota to get the ball back with a chance to win. And the Bison completed a Hail Mary just five yards from the end zone as time expired.
But it’s preposterous to say that Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter weren’t lauded properly for their Week 1 achievements. Both players were featured prominently throughout weekend highlight packages after their national TV performance. The attention Colorado draws was a big reason why the Buffaloes opened the season on a Thursday night on ESPN.
Though Shedeur Sanders wasn’t a part of the Davey O’Brien Award’s Great 8 in Week 1 — all the quarterbacks nominated played against FBS teams — both players’ Heisman odds dropped precipitously after the first week. They are definitely a part of the early Heisman conversation. Hunter is now the No. 9 favorite at BetMGM with odds of +1500. Sanders is right behind him at +2000. Both players are among the top 10 favorites.
