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  • Keeler: CU Buffs’ Travis Hunter is an NFL wideout playing cornerback, scouts say. “Receiver is where he can make the biggest impact”

    Keeler: CU Buffs’ Travis Hunter is an NFL wideout playing cornerback, scouts say. “Receiver is where he can make the biggest impact”

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    BOULDER — Jon Cooper figured he was out of the unicorn hunting game when Travis Hunter picked off his heart and ran it all the way back to 1981.

    “Roy Green was an outstanding nickel safety for the Cardinals,” Cooper, the longtime pro scout, associate GM and senior draft analyst with Ourlads.com, told me recently. “And went both ways before they decided he was too valuable as a receiver to do anything but (play offense).”

    Cooper was at a St. Louis Cardinals game 43 years ago when Green, a speedy return ace who’d recently been turned into a two-way threat at wideout and defensive back, became the first NFL player since 1957 to intercept a pass and catch another in the same game.

    “(Green) wasn’t as big as (CU football coach) Deion (Sanders) or Hunter,” the scout sighed. “He only did it for a season, or a season-and-a-half.”

    With an old Jim Hart and a young Neil Lomax at quarterback, then-Cards coach Jim Hanifan didn’t mess around when it came to what side of the ball mattered more. Once the coaching staff saw Green, a former track star, rack up 708 receiving yards and lead the Redbirds in touchdown catches (four) while re-learning the position on the fly in 1981, his days as an NFL defensive back were numbered.

    The whole experiment worked so well, Roy moved to offense full-time starting in 1982, eventually leading the NFL in touchdown catches in ’83 and in receiving yards in ’84, notching Pro Bowl berths in both seasons.

    “There are certain guys you want to throw to, guys you know will hang on to the ball,” Hart told Sports Illustrated in December 1981. “Roy’s one of those guys.”

    Hart might as well be describing No. 12, whose superhuman combination of hand-eye coordination, ball skills, agility and IQ have Buffs alums already calling him the best football player to ever don CU black and gold.

    “He’s got a great head on his shoulder as well. He’s tough. He’s smart,” Dave Syvertsen, Ourlads’ senior draft analyst and scout, said of Hunter, the cornerback/wide receiver whose 5-2 Buffs host 5-2 Cincinnati on Saturday night at Folsom Field. “I think he’s got great contest-catch numbers, too.

    “Great possession and ball skills. He has superstar potential.”

    Syvertsen grades the junior out as a first-rounder at both wideout and cornerback in the ’25 NFL draft. But like Cooper, he has a feeling front offices will look to pigeonhole Hunter into one side of the ball in order to preserve his long-term health.

    And like Roy Green two generations ago, they expect that side to be offense — with a sprinkling of defensive appearances, primarily as a nickel back or a slot corner, peppered in.

    “I think he could be a great corner,” Cooper said. “(But) there’s something to be said for guys playing some slot corner and also playing on offense. Deion did it himself.

    “I think it’s going to depend on the team. I could see him playing in sub packages on defense, because he’s so skilled … eventually, I think, he will be one or the other. I think receiver is probably where he can make the biggest impact long-term. The jury might be out as to whether he can go two ways initially or one way all the time. Unique, unique player.”

    The afternoon after CU hosts the Bearcats, the Carolina Panthers, 1-6 and going nowhere fast, visit the Broncos (4-3) at Empower Field. Tankathon.com’s 2025 NFL mock draft as of Tuesday afternoon pegged Hunter going to the Patriots with the No. 1 overall pick and Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders being taken by Carolina with the second selection. Longtime ESPN draftnik Mel Kiper recently ranked Hunter as the No. 1 overall pick on his big board.

    For a team that needs everything, including marketable, charismatic stars, Hunter ticks every box. That said, even Buffs icons such as Michael Westbrook, the greatest wideout in CU history, would suggest to Hunter that he lean on offense primarily at the next level.

    “I would use him as a wide receiver,” Westbrook told me, echoing the scouts’ sentiments. “I would sparingly put him in (with) nickel packages, dime packages. Anytime they’ve got four wideouts on the field, Travis goes in.”

    Defense may win championships, but touchdowns pay the bills. Unlike in Green’s era, limitation on contact with receivers, combined with rules that discourage quarterback hits, have made the NFL more of a passing league than ever.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders’ Hail Mary vs. Baylor was “better” than Kordell Stewart’s “Miracle at Michigan?” Michael Westbrook says yes. And no.

    Keeler: CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders’ Hail Mary vs. Baylor was “better” than Kordell Stewart’s “Miracle at Michigan?” Michael Westbrook says yes. And no.

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    Michael Westbrook has a new second-favorite miracle.

    “Our Hail Mary won the game,” the iconic former CU wide receiver told me by phone Monday when I asked to compare his 1994 Miracle at Michigan catch — which turns 30 on Tuesday — to Shedeur Sanders’ Mile High Miracle, the Baylor Blessing, in the Buffs’ bonkers overtime win this past weekend.

    “Theirs prevented them from losing the game. Ours won the game.”

    With that, he laughed.

    “You’ve got to remember who you’re talking to. I’m still Michael Westbrook. I’m still going to talk smack. Even though those are my Buffs.”

    He’s loving those 3-1 Buffs, by the way. And he loves wideout LaJohntay Wester’s sliding catch in the rain, the grab that brought Folsom Field to its feet and sent fans outside scurrying back to their seats as time expired.

    “Kordell (Stewart) had all the time in the world (in 1994),” Westbrook continued. “Shedeur running was the complete opposite. He’s getting tackled while he releases the ball. It was a stark contrast.

    “And (Stewart) is back there waiting for a tip with my 43-inch vertical, just sitting back there waiting. Theirs was a far more difficult play. Ours was very easy. We literally practiced that play every week. Every Friday we practiced that Hail Mary. (Shedeur’s) was a more skilled play, from their perspective.”

    Still: Two similar touchdowns, the last one happening three days from the 30th anniversary of the first? Who says the football gods don’t have a sense of humor?

    “It’s a huge blessing to have been a part of something like that,” Westbrook continued. “And then (30 years) later, to have something similar transpire … No. 10 throwing the ball in 1994 to No. 10 (Wester) actually catching it in 2024. My last name is Westbrook, his last name is Wester … it’s almost surreal.”

    It’s almost poetry. While Shedeur Sanders swung for the fences, Stewart was watching at home, clutching a pitching wedge nervously.

    “It’s one of those ‘moments,’ right?” the ex-Buffs QB told me Monday. “I’m like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ Mind you, the (FOX Sports) broadcast had just shown my Hail Mary pass from 1994, right before Shedeur threw that pass.

    “I don’t know if you call it fate. But history has a chance to repeat itself sometimes, in the same way, in the same capacity. I didn’t jump up. I was just like, ‘Wow, are you freaking kidding me?’ …  I had a moment. I just remembered how it was for us.”

    It was pandemonium. It was chaos. It was glorious.

    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver LaJohntay Wester (10) and teammate Travis Hunter (12) celebrate Wester’s touchdown to force overtime against the Baylor Bears in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. Baylor Bears safety Devyn Bobby (3) walks toward the sideline. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    On Sept. 24, 1994, the unbeaten and seventh-ranked Buffs trailed 26-14 to start the fourth quarter at fellow unbeaten and No. 4 Michigan. Staring at a 26-21 deficit with six seconds left, Stewart, the Buffs QB, had driven CU to its own 36. After a spike stopped the clock, then-Buffs coach Bill McCartney called for “Rocket Left,” in which Westbrook, Blake Anderson and Rae Carruth lined up on the left side of the formation and James Kidd lined up wide right.

    The rest is college football history, still regarded as one of the wildest endings of any NCAA contest played over the last 50 years. Stewart dropped back to about his own 27 and fired a deep ball as time expired. The lob had enough juice to carry it past the Michigan 1-yard line, where a mass jump-ball situation ensued.

    Anderson tipped the rock high and behind him, where the 6-foot-3 Westbrook, tracking the ball with his eyes, leaped up and cradled it as he rolled to the turf, stunning more than 100,000 Wolverines faithful in the process. Ralphie 27, Big Blue 26.

    “There are no flags on the field,” the legendary Keith Jackson said on the broadcast. “Only despair for the Maize and Blue.”

    Westbrook’s No. 1 Hail Mary was always going to be a beast to beat. Especially given the context. And the opponent. And the beatified building it silenced.

    “The one thing I was jealous of, was when (Wester) caught the ball, the reaction was a complete, stark contrast (to mine),” Westbrook reflected. “It was complete and total, utter silence, versus the decibels being high enough (at Folsom) to pop your eardrums. And it was so awesome to see that.

    “I was jealous and I was very proud of them. And very happy.”

    The closest Big No. 81 ever came to that kind of maelstrom in Boulder was in September 1993. He’d tipped a Stewart Hail Mary to teammate Charles Johson for a TD against Baylor just before halftime, giving CU a 35-0 cushion at the break. The Buffs went on to maul the Bears, 45-21.

    “(The Miracle at Michigan) was on the road, we overcame the adversity of 100,000 fans, we just overcame 10 penalties. We came back and won,” Westbrook continued. “(The ’24 Buffs) came back and won, too …

    “It was a great play. I’m not going to take that away from them. To put that ball where (Sanders) put it and for (Wester) to catch it like he caught it, that was a better play. That play was better than our play.”

    Another laugh.

    “But that play, in the grand scheme of things, was not a better play.”

    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver LaJohntay Wester (10) makes a catch in the end zone for a touchdown against Baylor Bears safety Corey Gordon Jr. (24) to force overtime, after the extra point, in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The Buffs went on to win 38-31. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver LaJohntay Wester (10) makes a catch in the end zone for a touchdown against Baylor Bears safety Corey Gordon Jr. (24) to force overtime, after the extra point, in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The Buffs went on to win 38-31. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CU Buffs grind past Boise State in NCAA Tournament First Four, advance to face Florida

    CU Buffs grind past Boise State in NCAA Tournament First Four, advance to face Florida

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    DAYTON, Ohio — The iron was unkind to CU almost all night long. But in March, an ugly win with a ticket to the next round of the Big Dance beats a pretty flight home to Boulder any day of the week.

    Thanks to a double-double from guard KJ Simpson and clutch buckets by forward Tristan da Silva, the Buffs advanced out of the NCAA Tournament’s First Four with a 60-53 win over Boise State at UD Arena.

    CU (25-10) will meet Florida  (24-11) on Friday in a first-round matchup in Indianapolis.

    It was the third NCAA tourney win for the Buffs under Tad Boyle since 2012 and the program’s second since 2021.

    With CU trailing 49-45, the Buffs’ Big Two of Simpson and da Silva brought their squad up off the mat, and extended a wild, roller-coaster season in the process.

    The latter’s trey from the corner made it a 49-48 game, and Simpson scored the next four points — via two free throws and a runner in the lane — to put CU up three. Center Eddie Lampkin Jr.’s soft follow with 32.8 seconds left, released just before the shot clock expired, gave the Buffs a 54-49 cushion.

    Wednesday was CU’s fourth game in seven days, and late in the tilt, the Buffs’ legs appeared to show some wear. Jumpers off the fingers of Simpson that he normally swishes trended short, and 50-50 rebounds near the rim on Boise misses were more often snagged by the scrappier Broncos in the second half.

    The Buffs opened the second stanza on a 9-4 run that also served as one of their best stretches of play to that point. Simpson accounted for four of those points, and the point guard’s layup with 15:58 left in the game elevated the CU lead to 35-28.

    But for much of the evening, anytime the Buffs started to build up breathing room, Boise found a way to claw right back into the fight. Broncos forward Cam Martin’s layup with 12:58 left capped a 9-3 Boise run.

    Martin’s putback with 9:11 to go, the culmination of a da Silva turnover and a mad scramble the other way, knotted the score at 43-all.

    While the Buffs’ offense stalled, O’Mar Stanley’s layup with 7:11 left put the Broncos up 45-43. Roddie Anderson III missed an open bunny on a backdoor cut, but Tyson Degenhart’s high-arcing follow was true, extending that Boise cushion to 47-43 and forcing Boyle to call a timeout.

    If you liked your basketball games to resemble a rock fight, the first half of Buffs-Broncos was for you.

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    Sean Keeler

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