Travis Hunter's Heisman victory as a testament of faith

Get the Point!

There is a VERY deep lesson in Travis Hunter's three year climb from being the top high school football player in America (according to Rivals, ESPN, 24/7 Sports and other media outlets that provide such rankings), to winning the Heisman Trophy—an award given annually to the top player in the collegiate game. Simply stated, that lesson is that we all must have unwavering faith in the vision that has been placed in our hearts for our own lives—be it professional, personal, or a combination of the two!

Travis Hunter, the 2024 Heisman winner…

As a person of faith, I have always believed that visions for my own life, those "gut feelings"if I will, are the Holy Spirit speaking to me. However, I also know that many of my non-Christian friends and followers also make decisions in their own lives based upon that "little voice" that pops up anytime they face the proverbial "fork in the road" and must decide whether to go left, right, or turn completely around.

Three years ago, Travis Hunter—then only 18 years old—committed to play football at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Over the preceding four decades, FSU had risen to become one of major college football's "Blue Blood" programs after winning three national championships and having three players, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, and Jameis Winston, win the coveted Heisman Trophy.

But on national signing day in December of 2021, Hunter shocked the world by spurning FSU not for a fellow major college Blue Blood like Georgia, Alabama, or Ohio State, but for Jackson State University, where he committed to playing for its new coach—none other than former FSU and NFL Hall of Famer Deion "Primetime" Sanders!

Mentor and Mentee: Coach Deion “Prime” Sanders, and Heisman winner Travis Hunter

From a purely football standpoint, Hunter's selection made perfect sense; as a cornerback, wide receiver, and kick returner, who on Earth could be BETTER to learn from than Sanders, arguably the best cornerback of all time who also played wide receiver and returned kicks in the NFL? And yet, when Hunter chose Coach Prime and Jackson State, his decision was BLASTED by many of the same media members who had praised him as the "Second Coming" of Sanders who would dominate the same field at Doak Campbell Stadium that “Prime” used to dominate in the 1980's.

Much of Hunter's rebuke, both in the mainstream and on social media, was laced with both subtle and blatant forms of bigotry from commenters who had NO clue (or care) that Jackson State University was a football Blue Blood LONG before Florida State, albeit during the Jim Crow era and its immediate aftermath in the early 1970's, when most of the best Black football talent attended Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)! As I noted back then and remind now, Jackson State has four former players in the NFL Hall of Fame—the same as South Carolina State and Morgan State—numbers that place each of these HBCU's in the upper echelons of NFL player production royalty.

Yet and still, as Hunter graduated and prepared to launch his college career, many self proclaimed "experts" predicted that he was making a tragic mistake—one that would detrimentally impact his NFL draft stock and prevent him from ever making it as big as his high school talent suggested!

Undaunted, Hunter followed that little voice in his head and helped lead the Jackson State Tigers to the Celebration Bowl—the HBCU National Championship game—where they lost to a very talented North Carolina Central team 41 to 34.

“Thank you to Jackson State, as well, that was my learning grounds that was my proving grounds. I had to start somewhere and I started there."-Travis Hunter, Heisman speech, December 14, 2024

Within days of that Celebration Bowl loss, Coach Prime was named the head coach at the University of Colorado, a once strong football program that had fallen on decades of hard times since its heyday in the early '90's. Once again the experts, "they" if you will, began speculating that Hunter would leave Jackson State to sign with a Blue Blood like Georgia, Alabama, or circle back to Florida State. Once again, "they" suggested that if he followed his coach/mentor/father figure in Sanders to Boulder, to a school that plays in frigid temperatures each fall and had won only a handful of games in the prior five seasons, that he would "waste his talent" and "hurt his draft stock" mightily by playing in late night games on the West Coast that no one would wait up to see.

Well, once more, Hunter followed that little voice in his head and signed with Colorado! And, once more, "they" were absurdly wrong, as Hunter, his fellow former Jackson State teammates Shedeur and Shilo Sanders (among others), and the Coach Prime led Buffalo team averaged 7.2 million viewers per game in 2023—with five of their games ranking among the most watched games of the entire season! Even Ol' Hobbs, one who believes in going to bed no later than 9:30 each and every night, stayed up way past midnight to watch the Buffaloes play ball in 2023—largely due to the prodigious talents of young Mr. Hunter!

Travis Hunter, striking the Heisman pose earlier this year after a touchdown, has dominated on offense and defense throughout his college career…

When the 2023 Colorado team finished 4-8, "they" were quick to suggest that 2024 would be even worse for Coach Prime and Hunter, a player who "they" suggested would be hurt or utterly exhausted from playing both ways to an extent that it would impact his draft status! Once more, "they" were wrong, as the Buffaloes finished 9-3, are heading to a bowl game, and as of last night, have the school's second Heisman Trophy winner—Travis Hunter—who joins former Buffalo running back Rashaan Salaam (1994) in that super special football fraternity! To add icing to the cake, Hunter not only becomes the second primarily defensive player to win the award (Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson being the first in 1997), but he is projected to be among the first five picks in next year's NFL Draft!

At the age of 52, I am often rather "meh" during football awards season, as I have heard so many acceptance speeches in my lifetime that they all sound very much the same in my opinion. But last night was different, and I admit that I got a little choked up watching Hunter win the Heisman largely due to the fact that he is a sublimely talented athlete, one who despite holding a 4.0 GPA in the classroom and staying out of trouble, still has been called a “thug” and had his every move second guessed by "they" and "them" since charting his own path to greatness—starting at Jackson State. To his credit, Hunter never stopped believing in the vision that God placed on his heart, and having watched just about every game that he has played over three years, he did so with a smile and glee that let me know that he was at peace with that vision because it was HIS vision—period, full stop.

Hunter paid homage to Deion Sanders's legendary habit of laying out his uniform before games to “envision” having success by laying out his Heisman ceremony suit yesterday in New York…

Indeed, Hunter understood the assignment for his life and has worked diligently to fulfill it and by so doing, reminds us ALL to continue along the paths that have been laid upon our own hearts and minds—even when our closest kin, friends, or “they” (the “experts”) question or ridicule our divinely ordered steps.

Lest we forget...