INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter insists he's a different kind of player.
He's just waiting until March to put on his dazzling show for NFL scouts.
The two-way star said Thursday he does not intend to work out with the defensive backs Friday or the receivers Saturday at the NFL's annual scouting combine and instead will wait until Colorado's Pro Day to give everyone a glimpse of his uncanny skills.
“I've been doing this for a long time, so I feel like I can keep doing it,” he said, acknowledging he hopes to play both positions next fall. “Hopefully they'll let me go out there 100% (at both), but that's up to the organization."
Perhaps no prospect in the combine era has come to Indianapolis with more hype.
That explains why he drew easily the largest media contingent during the first two days of the event and one of the largest ever for a non-quarterback, joining a list that included names such as Manti Te'o and Maurice Clarett.
Then again, no recent college player has excelled on both sides of the ball quite like Hunter.
He was so good, organizers gave him a defensive backs T-shirt so he had the opportunity to work out with that position group and stay an extra night so he could work out with the receivers — creating a marquee television event for NFL fans.
Like most of the top prospects in Indy, though, Hunter chose to opt out. While he wouldn't be the first player to change his mind should he work out either or both days, it seems unlikely with another chance looming on his own turf and with some familiar faces.
And given his pre-draft workout routine, it seems likely he'll go at both positions in March.
“I spent even time on both sides of the ball,” Hunter said. “I get my time in. It's all football for me, I have nothing else to worry about.”
Critics question whether Hunter really can play both full-time in the NFL, given the rigorous nature of double duty.
But Hunter believes the college experience already has prepared him well for something no NFL player has tried full-time since Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik played linebacker and offensive line for the Philadelphia Eagles from the late 1940s through the early 1960s.
Hunter's game week routine at Colorado called for early morning wakeup calls, regular treatment sessions, solo study sessions to master both gameplans and understand personnel and a commitment to keeping his body in tip-top shape so he could play roughly 2,500 snaps over the past two seasons.
In the NFL, though, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Hunter will face bigger, stronger, more physical opponents, making his path to success all the more challenging. Still, Hunter believes he can do it and apparently so does his college coach, Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, and the NFL coaches and general managers at the combine.
Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan even suggested Hunter could return punts, a notion Hunter seemed to try to dispel — at least for now.
“I don’t know if I’m going to return (kicks), I already have two jobs on my hand,” he said.
Don't count it out, though.
Hunter spent the first two days in Indy interviewing with team officials and even though he declined to cite the specific teams he spoke with, Hunter said he fielded questions about playing cornerback and receiver.
Sanders has lobbied publicly on behalf of his former star, urging any team that doesn’t intend to use Hunter at both spots not to draft him.
It's also unclear where Hunter will fall in the draft order. His college teammate, Shedeur Sanders, and former Miami star Cam Ward are battling to be the first quarterback selected. Tennessee, Cleveland and the New York Giants are all presumably looking for quarterbacks and hold the top three spots in the April draft.
Edge rusher Abdul Carter also was expected to be in the mix but it's unclear how the diagnosis of a stress reaction in his right foot could impact his draft stock. ESPN reported the diagnosis Wednesday night.
Then there's the one-of-a-kind Hunter.
“They say nobody has ever done it for real the way I do it,” Hunter said. "I tell them I'm just different. I'm a different person."
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Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP