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Colorado Buffaloes star Travis Hunter is like the Shohei Ohtani of baseball, in that he plays two positions incredibly well. To be clear, I’m not claiming he’s the best college football player ever, or even this year. But you can’t deny that what he does on the field is rare and special. 

Hunter plays wide receiver and defensive back, and here are his splits at each position this year:

  • WR – 37 receptions, 472 yards and five touchdowns
  • DB – 14 tackles, 2 pass break-ups, one forced fumble, and one interception

Don’t let the defensive stats deceive you, he’s an incredible pass coverage player, and could likely have a solid NFL career as a DB. But there are some who are unconvinced about his skills as a receiver.

In an episode of “The St. Brown Podcast” earlier this week, former NFL All-Pro cornerback and Super Bowl champion Richard Sherman said that he was generally unimpressed.

“As a receiver, I just think he’s kind of bland,” Sherman said. 

Amon-Ra St. Brown – the host of the podcast and himself an All-Pro receiver – echoed Sherman’s thoughts on Hunter, calling him “solid” on the offensive side of the ball, but saying he’d have a better chance of being a defender at the pro level.

Now I don’t know if bland is the right word, given that he can make catches like this in pressure situations.

But highlights like these certainly don’t account for the whole body of work that a receiver puts together. There’s route running, blocking, and other factors that contribute to the evaluation process for receivers. And given that I’m no expert at spotting wideout talent and that these two guys know what the heck they’re talking about, I’ll defer to their assessment of Hunter’s offensive skills.

But Hunter himself evidently doesn’t believe that he’s as mediocre as Sherman and St. Brown think he is. So when he pulled up to FBC Mortgage Stadium to prepare for a clash with the UFC Knights, Hunter wore a t-shirt that simply read “Bland” on the front.

Given that everyone in the Colorado program thrives on making things personal, this isn’t really surprising.

Who do you think is going to win the Colorado-UCF matchup? Let me know: john.simmons@outkick.com.