"Some of the Travis Hunter discourse is insane": CFB analyst Josh Pate hits back at unusual hate for 2024 Heisman winner

Travis Hunter's 2024 Heisman-winning season was exceptional on both sides of the ball. Playing most of the snaps in a football game is a herculean task, but Hunter not only kept himself injury-free through it all but also posted incredible stats.

Recording over 1,000 receiving yards in a single season is no joke, especially while also playing defense as a cornerback.

Despite his standout performance, there are still critics who argue that he isn’t as exceptional as he's often portrayed, even after securing the 2024 Heisman. CFB analyst Josh Pate also weighed in, expressing in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) his confusion over the criticism Hunter has faced.

"I'm hearing a lot of, 'Oh man, he only got it because of the Deion effect.' False. Can I offer an alternative point of view? You're only worked up because of the Deion effect," Pate said in the video.

Pate believes that had Hunter done it for an elite football program like FSU instead of Deion Sanders' Colorado, he wouldn't have received any pushback on his merit.

"If Hunter had stayed committed to FSU and done this for Mike Norvell's Seminoles this year — if he had played both ways and excelled at a high level on both sides — I don’t think we’d see a fraction of the pushback we're seeing now. The difference is that he did it for Deion at Colorado," Pate said.

Josh Pate believes Travis Hunter's unconventional path paid off

While most five-star college football players sign with elite programs, Travis Hunter chose to learn from the best. Instead of going to FSU, Georgia, or Texas, the two-way star signed with Jackson State, an FCS program, to learn under the tutelage of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.

In 2023, Sanders brought Hunter and several other Jackson State players to FBS' Colorado Buffaloes. They went 4-8 that season, where Hunter missed most of the games due to injury. This season, they turned things around with a 9-3 record and nearly made the college football playoff.

"Subconsciously, some of you don’t like Travis Hunter because he didn’t go down the path you wanted him to take," Josh Pate said addressing Hunter's unwarranted criticism. "This is not smart. Well, it was — he just wasn’t going about his career the way I envisioned him doing so."

Travis Hunter took the road less traveled, opening himself up to criticism, but ultimately, he won the coveted Heisman Trophy.