No. 23-ranked Colorado Buffaloes two-way star Travis Hunter was awarded the Heisman Trophy on Saturday. He narrowly won the award over Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, who received significant support. Other finalists, Miami QB Cam Ward and Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, did not finish close in the voting.
On Friday, NFL and college football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey appeared on 'Inside the NBA.' On the show, Shaq asked Bailey what he thought about the Heisman and if he thought Ashton Jeanty should have won over Travis Hunter.
"I love the results," Bailey said. "Now I would say that, i'm a running back guy. I love running backs. I respect the position to the fullest. Any other year, I'd say the past five to 10 years, Ashton Jeanty wins the award, but how many times have we seen Travis Hunter. How many times have we seen a guy go both ways full time all year? This dude is one of those once in a generation talents."
Champ Bailey says whether he thinks Travis Hunter can play both wide receiver and cornerback in the NFL
Although Travis Hunter has had tremendous success as a two-way player in college football, most experts agree that he will need to specialize in one position in the NFL. However, Hunter has pushed back on this and believes he can play both positions full-time in the NFL. Charles Barkley brought this up to Champ Bailey and asked him his thoughts on the topic.
"Well I think about my mindset at the time entering the league," Bailey said. "I begged for offensive plays. I wanted it. I was hungry, I was young, vibrant, I wanted everything. I even had incentives in my contract for offensive plays. So I see him getting a shot to do it because he's young, he's capable, but we have to be real."
"It's hard to stop the great ones. He needs to focus on defense more and less on offense but I'd give him a shot to do both."
Bailey's assessment of Hunter does not differ from that of other analysts. He believes that Hunter is hungry to play and will want to play both positions. However, he talked about how he has more experience as a cornerback and will be more dynamic at that position in the NFL. However, he said he would give him a chance to play both positions if he was the coach.
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