Colorado’s Travis Hunter appeared on both ‘Big Noon Kickoff’ and ‘College GameDay’

Both ESPN’s College GameDay and Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff often feature interviews with coaches, and they sometimes include interviews with active players. But most of those interviews are either of coaches or players at the game site, or remote via video call, or pre-taped at another location.

It’s particularly unusual to see a player from a school not involved in the feature game appear live, and to see him do so on both shows. But Colorado Buffaloes’ two-way star Travis Hunter did just that Saturday. With his team on a bye, he flew to State College, Pennsylvania (a rare host to both shows, which were there for the Ohio State-Penn State game). And with those shows right next to each other, Hunter appeared on both, first on ESPN, then on Fox. Part of his ESPN interview included a conversation with Nick Saban about preparing to play on both offense and defense:

Colorado’s Travis Hunter appeared on ESPN’s “College GameDay” as well today. There, he had a discussion with Nick Saban about preparing to play both ways each week, and going all-out in practice on both sides. “Practice, it’s got to be full speed.” pic.twitter.com/LQU34M6ojZ

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 2, 2024

“I try to get at least 10 hours of film, not including what we do at the school. And practice, it’s got to be full speed, nobody can stop you. I mean, Coach Prime tries to stop me every day I’m out there, and I won’t let him. …I’m playing 100 percent, no matter who’s in front of me.”

Hunter also talked about that film and other preparation, including his daily routine, on Fox:

“I try to get at least 10 hours of film by myself.”@CUBuffsFootball‘s Travis Hunter shares what his weekly prep looks like on Big Noon Kickoff 💪 pic.twitter.com/P1UFbiFw1N

— Big Noon Kickoff (@BNKonFOX) November 2, 2024

On Fox, Hunter also talked about his relationship with Colorado coach Deion Sanders:

“It’s just an unbreakable son and father bond… I can’t even explain it enough, I love him so much and I know he loves me so much.” @TravisHunterJr talks about the relationship he has with @CUBuffsFootball‘s @DeionSanders ❤️🦬 pic.twitter.com/am40ISivwq

— Big Noon Kickoff (@BNKonFOX) November 2, 2024

There was quite a bit of overlap in the discussions between these shows, which also featured Hunter and panelists talking up his Heisman candidacy. But that’s probably to be expected, with both shows asking similar (and relatively expected) questions, and most people are likely watching just one show or the other, so it’s new to them. Overall, both interviews were interesting, but what was perhaps more interesting was Hunter appearing on these shows in a location a long way from Colorado. And this also showed off some of the value that can be gained from interviews of college players, when those are possible.

High-level U.S. college football has long operated under much more severe media restrictions around players than, say, the NFL. The currently-under-debate open locker rooms in the pros are generally not a thing at all in the college ranks, and many coaches have particularly cracked down on access (including punishing reporters who talk to players without the program’s express permission). And that leads to an emphasis on coaches’ comments in much of the media coverage, and on these pregame shows.

But there’s a lot of value to players’ perspectives as well, and Hunter’s appearances here showed that. And while it would seem difficult to regularly get players from a third school on a pregame show, there definitely could be some merit to amping up players’ perspectives in per-taped interviews, Zoom conversations, or appearances from players who are involved in the game in question (especially if there’s a significant amount of time between the pregame show and the game). At any rate, it was useful to see Hunter on both these shows.

[Big Noon Kickoff on X]