On a spooky Friday the 13th at Folsom Field, even Colorado’s superhuman do-it-all Superman revealed his frailty.
Travis Hunter, a wide receiver/cornerback who had missed the previous three games with a lacerated liver, struggled on defense in the Buffs’ shocking 46-43 double-overtime loss to Stanford.
Hunter was a key player on offense in his return.
On the one hand, Hunter recorded a team-best and career-high 13 catches for 140 yards and two touchdowns.
Hunter’s first touchdown gave CU an early lead as the home team took a 29-0 halftime advantage, and his second touchdown grab in the second half ended a run of four consecutive Stanford touchdowns.
On the other hand, the Buffs’ collapse in the second half was significantly influenced by Hunter and the rest of the CU secondary.
Elic Ayomanor, a Stanford wide receiver, burned him twice for touchdowns during the Cardinal comeback, and Hunter was also called for an unnecessary roughness penalty early in the fourth quarter, which resulted in the conversion of a potential field goal attempt into a touchdown.
Deion Sanders, the head coach at CU, evaluated the player’s performance by saying that he made some plays and didn’t make others.
“Unfortunately, the plays he didn’t make at the very end are amplified. But the plays he made kept us in the contest.
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Sanders attributed the number of penalties the Buffs committed—17 in all, for 127 yards—to “not being smart and not being disciplined” and blamed them for Stanford’s comeback.
“Hunter was fighting with Ayomanor after the whistle when he received his unsportsmanlike penalty in the fourth quarter, which was his second such flag of the contest after an excessive celebration flag on his first TD.
In the third quarter, Stanford’s deficit was reduced to 10 points when Ayomanor scorched Hunter for a 60-yard touchdown on a deep post pattern.
After Hunter and the CU secondary allowed Stanford to regain control of the game in the first overtime, Ayomanor then secured a 30-yard touchdown and forced a second overtime, which the Cardinal won on a field goal.
Ayomanor had to reach over Hunter’s helmet to make the catch.
These two plays were a part of Ayomanor’s career day, which saw the Stanford wide receiver surpass his season total in a single evening with 13 catches for a Cardinal-record 294 yards and three touchdowns.
Hunter appeared to be a star on offense even though he was unable to stop Ayomanor’s dominance in the second half. He outran the Cardinal with a fancy spin move for his first touchdown, caught his second in traffic at the goal line before being tackled by two defenders.
After not participating in a game since the Rocky Mountain Showdown on September, Sanders said Hunter’s conditioning had improved.
The cornerback was burned by Ayomanor several times in the second half, despite the fact that he was only 16 at the time.
After Friday’s defeat, Hunter was not made available.