Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders knows a thing or two about being an elite defensive back, and Coach Prime was frustrated to discover that Travis Hunter wasn’t included among this year’s Jim Thorpe Award finalists.
During his Tuesday press conference, Coach Prime listed all of the individual college football awards that named Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders as finalists. After that, he took aim at the Jim Thorpe Award for snubbing Hunter.
The Jim Thorpe Award is given annually to the best defensive back in the country. This year’s finalists are Caleb Downs of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Malaki Starks of the Georgia Bulldogs and Jahdae Barron of the Texas Longhorns.
Heading into Friday’s regular season finale, Hunter has three interceptions, nine pass breakups and a forced fumble.
CU has some history with the Thorpe. Soon after Deion Sanders won it at Florida State in 1988, Colorado greats Deon Figures and Chris Hudson took home the award in 1992 and 1994, respectively.
Coach Prime let it be known that snubbing Hunter was a mistake:
“How is Travis Hunter snubbed by the Jim Thorpe award?” Coach Prime said. “You can have my award, you can have it back. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna give him mine. I ain’t using it. It’s just sitting up there collecting dust. Travis can have my Thorpe Award because if this ain’t the most idiotic thing in college football that he’s not a finalist for the Jim Thorpe award. He is, I would say, arguably, but I don’t think it’s really an argument about this young man being the best defensive back in college football.
“I ain’t say anything about the receiver part of it; I’m just talking about defensive back. He rarely gets thrown at. He’s won a game tackling for us, and he’s always on point. If you bring up the statistics, I don’t know how in the world Travis Hunter isn’t a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. They just pretty much messed up all the integrity of the award, and he can have mine.”
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