Travis Hunter Named Academic All-American of the Year

BOULDER—Travis Hunter was named the Academic All-American Team Member of the Year for Division I football as a repeat first-team Academic All-American, College Sports Communicators announced Tuesday.

He is the third student-athlete at CU to win one of the highest academic honors in the country, the second football player alongside Jim Hansen, who was honored in 1992, and the two are joined by CU ski team member Hanna Abrahamsson, who won the At-Large team distinction last season.

He is the first player in CU history to be named a unanimous first-team All-American and first-team Academic All-American in CU history and just the fourth football player and sixth overall student-athlete at CU to earn back-to-back first-team honors. In football, Joe Romig (1960-61), Rick Stearns (1973-74) and Hansen (1990-92) accomplished the feat, as did track athletes Jenny Barringer Simpson (2008-10) and Sage Hurta (2020-21). He joins Romig as the only two consensus first-team All-Americans and first-team Academic All-Americans in CU's football history, both accomplishing that feat twice.

Hunter is the third Heisman Trophy winner to be named first-team Academic All-America the same season, joining Florida's Danny Wuerffel in 1996 and Tim Tebow in 2008. He also joins Wuerffel as the second Heisman Trophy winner who was named the Academic All-American of the Year. Just two other players were any level of Academic All-American in their Heisman seasons, Auburn's Pat Sullivan the same in 1971 and Baylor's Robert Griffin III in 2011 as both were second-team Academic All-Americans.

One of the most decorated players in college football history, Hunter was the consensus National Player of the Year winning the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award and being named as such by both the Associated Press and Sporting News. He won the defensive player of the year awards both with the Bednarik Award and the Lott IMPACT Trophy, won the Hornung Award as the nation's most versatile player and the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's top receiver regardless of position.

Counting all major trophies and the two National Player of the Year honors from the AP and Sporting News, Hunter is the first non-QB to win eight of those awards in a single season and is the first to win those plus the Academic All-American of the Year. He joins LSU's Joe Burrow and Oregon's Marcus Mariota on that list of eight major awards. Notre Dame's Manti Te'o won seven trophies in 2012, but did not win the AP or Sporting News honor, but he was an Academic First-Team All-American that season.

Hunter was named a unanimous first-team All-American, picking up seven first-team honors and eight overall from the five publications the NCAA uses to determine consensus and unanimous honors, and was the first player in the 135-year history of the Walter Camp All-America team and in the 100-year history of the Associated Press All-America team to pick up two first-team honors at different positions. The AP named him an All-American and three positions. The other three teams (Sporting News, AFCA, FWAA) only allowed Hunter to be named at one position.

The Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and honorable mention Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, he was named first-team All-Big 12 on both offense and defense by the league's coaches, the AP and others.

On offense, he caught 96 passes for 1,253 yard and 15 touchdowns, ranking first in CU history in receiving touchdowns, second in receptions and third in receiving yards. He was the only Power 4 wide receiver to average over one receiving touchdown per game and his 15 receiving TDs were second in the FBS and led the Power 4, and he ranked third on PFF with an 89.7 grade among P4 receivers.

Defensively, he had 15 passes defended with four interceptions and 11 pass breakups, ranking third in the Power 4 and tied for the lead in the Big 12. His PFF grade in coverage was 90.3, second best in the Power 4. He was targeted just 41 times on 405 coverage snaps, 10.1%, second lowest in the P4 and he allowed just 23 receptions for 222 yards and 7 total first downs on the season. His four interceptions on 41 targets gave him a 9.8 interceptions/target percentage, also second best in the P4.

As a receiver, the calculated QB rating when he was targeted was 141.3, third best in the P4 and as a corner, the calculate QB rating when he was targeted was 39.9, fourth best in the P4. He caught 96 passes and allowed 23 receptions. He had more than 1,000 yards than he allowed (1,253 to 222) and he caught 15 touchdowns and gave up just one in coverage.

In all, he played 1,461 scrimmage snaps, 713 on offense and 748 on defense. PFF had him playing 35 different positions including special teams. On the season, he played over 85% of CU's scrimmage snaps and if you take out the two games he was held out due to injury, he played 94.4% of offensive snaps and 92.9% of defensive snaps.

Travis Hunter Named Academic All-American of the Year

Players Mentioned

Travis Hunter

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