Why Travis Hunter's Thorpe Award snub is 'idiotic'

Deion Sanders won the Jim Thorpe Award in 1988 as college football’s best defensive back. He doesn’t even want the trophy anymore after what voters have done to Travis Hunter.

Finalists for the Jim Thorpe Award were announced on Tuesday morning and the Colorado two-way star was somehow excluded.

That didn’t sit well with Sanders.

“How is Travis Hunter snubbed by the Jim Thorpe Award? You can have my award. You can have it back. Matter of fact, I’m going to give him mine. I’m not using it. It’s just sitting up there collecting dust,” Sanders said Tuesday.

“Travis can have my Thorpe Award because this is the most idiotic thing in college football, that he’s not a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.”

Travis Hunter is currently a massive favorite to win the Heisman Trophy Award and a finalist for the Bednarik Award (given to the best defensive player in college football).

How can a defensive back be a finalist for the best defender in college football, but not a finalist for the best defensive back in college football?

That’s what Deion Sanders would like to know.

“He (Travis Hunter) rarely gets thrown at, he’s won a game for tackling for us and he’s always on point,” Sanders said Tuesday. “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.

The Jim Thorpe Award, instead of actually being awarded to the best defensive back in college football, will go to either Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs or Georgia safety Malaki Starks.

Here’s a bare look at the finalists’ stats this season compared to Travis Hunter’s:

Jahdae Barron: 41 total tackles (27 solo), four INTs, eight PBUs

Caleb Downs: 50 total tackles (29 solo), zero INTs, three PBUs

Malaki Starks: 55 total tackles (35 solo), one INT, two PBUs

Travis Hunter: 31 total tackles (20 solo), three INTs, nine PBUs

Downs and Starks may have more tackles (because they play safety instead of corner), but Hunter has more interceptions and pass breakups than both of them combined.

Barron’s four INTs and eight PBUs are impressive, but he’s allowed 200 coverage yards this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Hunter has allowed just 134 (also fewer than Starks’ 241 yards allowed) and none of the finalists have forced a fumble this season like the Buffs’ star has.

The only category that the finalists have an edge over Hunter in is tackles, which is a direct result of being targeting just 34 times this season.

“If a cornerback has eight tackles in the game, do you guys know what that means? That means they caught six balls. That’s what that means. They caught six balls on them because two of those are probably run support,” Sanders said last week.

“If you see a corner with a lot of tackles, that’s not a good sign. Those of you out there in the world of football, if you see a corner with a lot of tackles, they’ve caught a lot of balls on them.”

There might be an argument to be made that Hunter isn’t the best defensive back in college football, but there’s no argument for three defensive backs being better than Hunter right now.

He’s a generational talent at cornerback (and receiver) and none of the finalists will be drafted higher than him.

It may just be voter fatigue and Hunter may very well end up sweeping the other prestigious awards he’s been named a finalist for (Maxwell, Biletnikoff, Hornung, Walter Camp), but a stain has been left on the history of the Jim Thorpe Award.

“They just pretty much messed up all the integrity of the award, and he can have mine,” Sanders said Tuesday. “Whoever is voting down there, thank you, because I don’t even want mine now.”

Follow Colorado Buffaloes beat reporter Scott Procter on X.