Travis Hunter Says He Should Win the Heisman Because of His Hypothetical Stats if He Had As Many Catches As Ashton Jeanty Has Rushing Attempts

I wrote on September 28 that Travis Hunter should be the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. I still believe he should be right there with Ashton Jeanty, though Jeanty has probably taken the lead after somehow continuing to put up superhuman numbers. But even as someone who is extremely impressed by what Hunter is doing this season, this is one of the worst arguments I've ever heard.

First of all, you could just say this for literally any player. If Ryan Williams or Jeremiah Smith had 95 catches right now, I'm sure either of them would be a Heisman favorite, too. But they don't. Also, gaining 1,000 yards on 95 catches is quite a bit different than doing it on 95 carries out of the backfield. If Hunter had 1,200 yards on balls exclusively caught behind the line of scrimmage through six games, he should absolutely be the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman.

Additionally, Hunter says, "It's not like we haven't seen a running back that's good. We haven't seen a player that plays both ways."

Well actually, we've seen a two-way Heisman Trophy winner fairly recently (Charles Woodson in 1997), while we've really never seen a running back who's on pace to put up 2,500 rushing yards on 250 carries — the only three 2,500-yard rushers in college football history all had at least 340 carries. Again, I'm a huge fan of what Travis is doing this season, but downplaying the year Jeanty is having is insane.

We can play the "what if" game all we want, but at the end of the day, Jeanty looks like he's going to finish the season with stats we've literally never seen before. And even so, Hunter is still right there in the Heisman race, which is a testament to how great of a player he is. I just can't sit idly by and have Ashton Jeanty's accomplishments be belittled, because what he's doing is something we've literally never seen before.