BOULDER — Shedeur Sanders flu under the radar. Dude practiced one day last week. One. Before he went viral, No. 2 felt viral.
“It was tough out there getting the chemistry back with everybody,” the CU Buffs’ QB1 explained early Sunday morning, having powered through influenza to throw for 323 yards in a 34-23 win over Cincinnati. “Because you lose weight, you lose strength, you lose a lot of things.”
Not touch. Not zip. Not feel. Not mojo. Shedeur completed his first 15 passes. In a half. Against a good Cincinnati team. Against a Bearcats defense that allowed 19 completions to Texas Tech last month — over a whole game.
For the evening, Sanders threw it 30 times. He completed 25, with two touchdowns through the air and another on the ground. From a sick guy who was planting on one good leg by the end of the third quarter.
Travis Hunter checks in at 185 pounds. I mean, he takes up that much room on your Heisman Trophy ballot? Really?
“They’re not gonna give (it to) two players on the same team,” Sanders, son of second-year CU coach Deion Sanders, reflected with a shrug when asked about he and Hunter splitting, if not masticating, one another’s Heisman candidacies.
“Me and Trav, (we) just deal with it. It’s not gonna happen like that … so it is what it is. I don’t really look too deep into that. I just want Travis to win, of course. And that’ll be almost like I won. Because I threw him the ball.”
With that, Shedeur smiled. Even the most cynical scribes in the room had to chuckle at that one.
“Travis, he is the best player in college football, hands-down,” Son of Prime continued. “And I’m excited for him to win it. And that’s truly — that’ll just make my day right there.”
When ESPN.com asked 14 staff writers to participate in a mid-season Heisman poll back on Oct. 15, Shedeur didn’t land a single vote.
Boise State tailback Ashton Jeanty led the mock field with 11 first-place tallies, followed by Hunter (three), Miami QB Cam Ward, Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel and Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke.
It’s Jeanty’s award to lose, largely because his Broncos won’t lose — with UNLV out of the way, there’s no Mountain West/2-Pac team left on the slate that Boise can’t beat.
Rourke and coach Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers are all kinds of legit, but the former’s dinged up. Plus, the Crimson and Cream routed Washington this past weekend without the services of their aforementioned QB.
Gabriel’s thrown for 18 scores with five picks; Sanders has thrown for 21 with six. Ward’s beaten four teams with winning records; Sanders has beaten three. Oh, and thrown for an average of 359.3 yards in those games while sporting a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 10-to-1.
By the way, 15 for 15 to open a game is a new CU school record, bumping Joel Klatt and Steven Montez’s 12 straight completions to joint No. 2.
Again, one day of practice. One.
What’s that? Still no room?
“Wow, wow, wow,” Deion Sanders said after his Buffs clinched bowl eligibility vs. Cincy, moving to 6-2 and 4-1 in the Big 12 while also staying within touching distance of BYU, Iowa State and Kansas State in the league title chase. “And they don’t even mention him for the Heisman? He’s not even mentioned? Oh, my bad. He’s my son. That’s why.”
It’s not. Hunter’s unicorn narrative is the bigger problem, frankly, the way it sucks up the oxygen on the ballot that Jeanty hasn’t already gobbled up.
Although that’s not an excuse for voters, either. At all. Since 2004, teammates have finished among the top 5 in Heisman voting seven times, and four times since 2016. The last teammates to land in the top 3 in the same Heisman voting cycle came in 2020 when Alabama’s DeVonta Smith (No. 1) and Mac Jones (No. 3) headed up a very Tide-centric group of finalists. The last two to land within the top 6 in the same year were Bama’s Bryce Young (No. 1) and Will Anderson Jr. (No. 5) in 2021.
Some national backlash against CU football, you can understand. Coach Prime’s tipped over just about every sacred cow in the college game, from recruiting, NIL deals, sponsorships and staff hires to media access. Like the Oakland Raiders of old, his Buffs are brash and bold, fast and furious, and don’t give a darn what you or I think. And never will.
But any backlash against Shedeur is straight-up Looney Tunes.
Consider: He’s racked up as many victories over a season-and-a-half as a Buffs starter (10) as CU won, combined, in 2019 (five), 2021 (four) and 2022 (one). On the Buffs’ career charts, his 48 CU TD passes since 2023 trail only Sefo Liufau (60), Steven Montez (63) and Cody Hawkins (63), all of whom piled up their numbers over more games.
You want a guy who combines great ability with diligence, perseverance and hard work? Go back and watch No. 2 try to run the CU offense after suffering what looked like an ankle tweak late in the third stanza, a knock that left him noticeably limping between plays. Yet over the final 21 minutes of the second half, Sanders still had enough juice to complete four of five throws for 64 yards and get the Buffs over the line.
“(I’m) a little banged up,” Shedeur admitted Sunday. “But we won, so it’ll make everything feel a little better. For sure.”
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, left, confers with offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur in the second half of an NCAA college football game against Cincinnati Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
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You want a “Heisman moment?” No. 2 produces three to four per game. Pick your opponent. Pick your week. Give Shedeur enough time and a few timeouts, he thinks he can score from anywhere. And usually does.
Cincy found that out the hard way. With 31 seconds left before halftime, the Buffs defense stoned the Bearcats on a fourth-and-1 at midfield, giving the hosts the ball back at the CU 46 with two timeouts left. It took five passes and 28 seconds for Sanders to find the end zone again. An extra point pushed the hosts’ cushion to 10 with three seconds until halftime, flipping the field and momentum for the rest of the evening.
“You look around all these lists, and Shedeur’s name isn’t on them,” Coach Prime reflected. “I don’t care. I really don’t. I don’t. It’s just strange. It’s just funny to me. I just think — it’s just ignorant. But it’s funny.”
Hunter’s the most outstanding player of this or any dozen college seasons. But if your Heisman vote leaves Shedeur in the cold, my friend, the joke’s on you.
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