Travis Hunter: The Double Threat Jacksonville Hopes Will Revitalize
In the midst of the University of Colorado graduation ceremony, the white band on Travis Hunter’s black gown announced his achievement as the first member of his family to obtain a university degree. But what he wore under that academic attire revealed his enthusiasm for his next job: receiver and cornerback in the NFL.
The Jacksonville Jaguars, following a strategic trade, selected Hunter with the second overall pick in the 2025 draft. After the celebrations and congratulations, his first purchase as a professional athlete was Jaguars pajamas, perfect for graduation.
“That was the first thing I ordered on Amazon after being recruited,” commented Hunter, a two-time Academic All-American, Anthropology graduate.
Travis Hunter
Just 18 hours after choosing Hunter, James Gladstone, the Jaguars’ general manager, placed high expectations on him.
“He elevates not only this soccer team, not only this city, but the sport itself,” Gladstone said. “There are few players with the ability to alter the trajectory of the sport. Travis, although he still has much to learn, has the potential to do so.”
James Gladstone
Hunter has been touted as a generational talent since his days at Collins Hill High School and at Jackson State and Colorado universities, defying positional expectations by being a full-time receiver and cornerback.
Hunter’s 2024 season in Colorado was impressive. He was the first player to earn two All-America honors in the same season (all-purpose and cornerback), and he was also an All-American at the receiver position. In addition, he was the first player in Walter Camp Football Foundation history to be named All-America on offense and defense.
His coaches have described him as a prodigy and a soccer sage, highlighting his humility. Now, Hunter faces the challenge of becoming the face of a struggling franchise, trying to establish himself as the first full-time two-way player in the NFL in over 50 years.
The last time a player played full-time in both positions was Chuck Bednarik, who played center and linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1949 to 1962.
Excelling in both positions in 2025 would make Hunter one of the biggest stars in the league, and those around him believe that he can not only handle that scenario, but thrive, because he has been doing it all along.
Otis Riddley, former Jackson State player personnel director, commented on Hunter’s maturity:
“The amount of attention he had in 2021, 2022 as a high school senior… I know it pales in comparison to the NFL, but at that age, the way he behaved [was impressive],” Riddley said.
Otis Riddley
His coach at Jackson State and Colorado, Deion Sanders, summed it up before the draft: “There’s no one like Travis.”
Description: Travis Hunter was selected at number 2 by the Jaguars in last month’s NFL draft.
In the summer of 2018, Hunter arrived at Collins Hill High School football training as a 150-pound young man with a wide smile. Behind that smile, a voracious work ethic and the belief that he had to be the best at everything he did were hidden.
Hunter played in high school as a freshman. It wasn’t until his sophomore year that he began playing receiver as well, intercepting seven passes and catching 49, 12 of which were for touchdowns.
As a junior and senior, he was one of the best players in the country, accumulating 3,404 total yards and scoring 40 touchdowns. He caught 222 passes for 3,030 yards and 36 touchdowns, ran 24 times for 239 yards and two scores, and intercepted 12 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns.
In his senior year, he was named a first-team All-American and Georgia Player of the Year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Drew Swick, the school’s outside linebackers coach when Hunter arrived in 2018, said:
“He was too good not to play him all the time, and he never came off the field. He just has a motor and a motivation I’ve never seen before.”
Drew Swick
Swick also mentioned that Hunter was a worker during the summer. His four-hour daily workouts at school began at 7:30 a.m., and then he devoted time to his footwork with his personal trainer, Drew Johnson. Each day, he underwent treatments, including cryotherapy to reduce inflammation. When he wasn’t doing any of that, he studied videos of his future opponents.
Swick added:
“Most kids love football, but Travis Hunter lives football every day. That’s the best way to describe it. He lives it every day and that’s his number one passion. And he’s very, very good at it.”
Drew Swick
His mother, Ferrante Edmonds, revealed that she moved with her family to Suwanee in 2018 seeking a better life. After living with a friend, the family settled in a hotel. In his sophomore year, Hunter requested to live with Collins Hill High School coach Frontia Fountain, which meant Hunter had to arrive at school early each day.
Since Fountain lived outside the district, Hunter had to travel with him every morning, arriving at 5:20 a.m. School started at 7 a.m., so Hunter would doze under the desk in Fountain’s office for another hour. Living with Fountain also meant that he had to complete his schoolwork before anything else. No video games, no fishing videos (a hobby of his), and no movies of upcoming opponents.
Fountain explained:
“I knew it was going to be great because I was very focused. I was so focused and motivated. Only Travis can stop Travis, nobody else, because he will find a way to make it possible.”
Frontia Fountain
By the time his junior season began, Hunter was the No. 2 prospect in the nation on the ESPN 300 (defensive tackle Walter Nolen was No. 1) and was being recruited by top programs such as Alabama, Florida, and Oregon, among others.
Hunter made it clear to all of them: he wanted to continue playing on both sides of the ball in college.
Florida State coach Mike Norvell expressed interest in having Hunter do it, and Hunter committed to play for the Seminoles in March 2020, five months before the start of his junior season.
But just as that school year began, Jackson State hired former NFL cornerback and Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who also played in the NFL as a receiver during his 11-year career that began in 1989, and Hunter’s college plans soon changed.
Description: Hunter’s relationship with quarterback Shedeur Sanders and coach Deion Sanders influenced his decision to follow them and transfer to Colorado.
Sanders, who played three sports (football, track and field, and baseball) at Florida State, aggressively recruited Hunter, who took an official visit to Jackson State in November 2021 to see the Tigers play against Alcorn State. Hunter met Sanders’ son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, on the trip and the two stayed in contact. Shedeur Sanders later said he encouraged Hunter to change his commitment.
On December 15, 2021, Hunter announced that he was signing with Jackson State, becoming the first five-star recruit to sign with a historically black college or university.
After graduating from high school a semester early, he enrolled in college that spring and caught two touchdowns and two interceptions in the Tigers’ spring game, which was broadcast nationally on ESPNU after Hunter and Sanders helped raise the program’s profile.
Hunter missed five games in his freshman season due to an undisclosed injury; he finished the season with 18 receptions for 188 yards and four touchdowns on offense and deflected eight passes, intercepted two, and scored a defensive touchdown. He was named a finalist for the Jerry Rice Award, given to the best freshman player in FCS college football.
Riddley remembers how impressed he was with the way Hunter handled the attention he received, both for his decision to sign with the Tigers and for the pressure that came with being one of the best freshmen in the country.
Riddley, now associate coach/tight end coach and school general manager, said:
“He was different from the day he stepped on campus. He was light years ahead from a maturity standpoint, but also light years ahead from a work ethic standpoint. He doesn’t mind working. He doesn’t mind doing things off the field to make him a better athlete on the field.”
Otis Riddley
Jackson State made Hunter learn defense first and gradually added some offensive work. The process was faster than expected, and Riddley said that any doubts the coaching staff had about Hunter playing both ways evaporated a few weeks after spring practice.
Riddley added:
“Once we had him on campus and saw how intelligent he was as a football player, it was obvious to allow him the opportunity to at least try both sides. … I just think he’s a savant when it comes to football.”
Otis Riddley
Hunter shined on the FBS stage when he transferred, following Sanders to Colorado in 2023. Hunter caught 11 passes for 119 yards and had three tackles and an interception in the Buffaloes’ surprising victory over TCU in the season opener. Three games later, he caught 13 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns in a loss to Stanford. He had two interceptions against UCLA in Week 9.
Hunter missed three games after undergoing surgery for a lacerated liver, an injury he suffered in Week 3 against Colorado State. That season, he played 984 total snaps (sixth in the FBS), caught five touchdowns, intercepted three passes, and allowed an opposing QBR of 68.3 (ranked 282nd in the FBS) in nine games.
In 2024, Hunter improved. His 15 touchdown receptions tied for second in the FBS, and his 96 receptions tied for fourth in the FBS. He intercepted four passes and allowed a QBR of 21.6 (57th in the FBS), a big improvement over 2023.
In addition to winning the Heisman at the end of the season, he became the first player in college football history to win the Chuck Bednarik Award (defensive player of the year) and the Fred Biletnikoff Award (outstanding receiver).
During those two seasons in Colorado, Hunter played 2,442 snaps in 22 games, 457 snaps more than the next FBS player, OT Hayden Conner. There were 34 instances in which an FBS player played 100 snaps in a game; Hunter accounted for half of them (no other player had more than one such game).
Riddley commented:
“You have a prodigy who can play the piano, you have a prodigy who can play the violin, and then you have a prodigy who plays soccer, and I think that’s what it is.”
Otis Riddley
Swick, Fountain, and Riddley used the same word to describe how Hunter has been able to handle the constant attention, pressure, and scrutiny of the last five years and still be the same kid he was when he first arrived at Collins Hill: humble.
Fountain commented:
“It’s funny. I don’t really see Travis the way you do. Everyone sees Travis as the famous Travis. I see Travis as the little boy who used to come home with me after school and go back to school with me in the morning. We talked about where he wanted to go to school and who he wanted to be and what it took to get to the next level and the next level. That’s what I see.”
Frontia Fountain
Description: Hunter participated in his first team activities at the Jaguars’ rookie minicamp over the weekend.
The Jaguars have been largely irrelevant, aside from their first five years of existence. Since recording four consecutive winning seasons and playoff appearances from 1996 to 1999, the Jaguars have had consecutive winning seasons only twice (2004-05 and 2022-23) and only four playoff appearances (2005, 2007, 2012, and 2022).
Gladstone believes Hunter will be an important part of changing that.
Gladstone explained:
“Travis Hunter, embodies belief. He is a rare person. He is a rare player. But he is also a reminder that the limits of the game of football were built to be challenged.”
James Gladstone
That was the Jaguars’ plan when they decided to go after Hunter. They plan to start Hunter on offense and give him a package on defense, but they are not yet sure if that means 45 snaps on each side of the ball, 75% on offense and 25% on defense, or any other distribution.
First-time head coach Liam Coen said Hunter has been learning the offensive and defensive playbooks, but they opted to have him only catch passes during the Jaguars’ two-day rookie minicamp and then give him some defensive reps for the first time this week, which is the final week of Phase 2 of the offseason conditioning program.
Coen emphasized the need to be flexible in his approach with Hunter because everything depends on how quickly he can learn the offense and defense, his physical condition and endurance, and how quickly his body can recover each week.
But what everyone is sure of is what they want the result to be.
Coen added:
“We want it to look like it looked in Colorado, and that would be pretty good for us.”
Liam Coen
Hunter has accepted the challenge.
Hunter stated:
“My job is to go out there and be Travis Hunter. Go out there and play how they imagine I play and exceed all expectations.”
Travis Hunter
Hunter’s former coaches are confident that he will handle the spotlight that comes with playing on both sides of the ball in the NFL due to everything he has experienced in the last five years, including having disposable income thanks to NIL deals with United Airlines, NerdWallet, Cheez-It, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Hey Dude shoes, among others.
Riddley concluded:
“And he hasn’t changed, just from a character standpoint in the intervening years. I just think that seeing how he handled his recruitment out of high school and coming to Jackson State and then even going to Colorado, he did everything with grace. And for a kid that age, that’s pretty remarkable. I don’t see an NFL check or an NFL lifestyle changing that because, although he didn’t have money three or four years ago, he’s had money the last three years. And I know it’s not first-round money, but I think the way he’s handled himself to this point, it doesn’t lead me to believe that he’ll be a kid that gets sidetracked by the lifestyle that could be presented to him off the field.”
Otis Riddley
Hunter has been consistent in saying that he is not pressured by anything. He wants to play on both sides of the ball in the NFL and believes he will succeed in doing so. He is not concerned about what anyone thinks about it, nor does he worry about anyone who doubts that he can do it.
As for being a franchise changer, Hunter isn’t thinking that way.
Hunter stated:
“I’m going to go out and do my job. I’m not going to say I’m going to change anything. I don’t want to put the expectation too high. I’m just going to go in and do my job and hopefully we change the environment.”
Travis Hunter
