JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- When Travis Hunter walked the stage in the University of Colorado's undergraduate commencement ceremony at Folsom Field stadium on Thursday, the white sash that topped his black gown told the world he's a first-generation college graduate.
What he wore under his academic dress told the world he's looking forward to his first post-graduate job as an NFL receiver and cornerback.
Three weeks ago, the Jacksonville Jaguars traded up to select the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner No. 2 overall in the 2025 NFL draft. After all the celebrating, phone calls, interviews, hugs, handshakes and congratulations were over, Hunter's first purchase as a pro athlete was a pair of Jaguars pajama pants to wear at graduation.
"That's the first thing I ordered off of Amazon after I got drafted," said Hunter, a two-time first-team academic All-American who graduated with a degree in anthropology.
Just 18 hours after drafting Hunter, Jacksonville's first-year general manager, James Gladstone, set stratospheric expectations on Hunter's shoulders.
"He elevates not only this football team, not only this city, but the sport itself, right?" Gladstone said. "Along the way you can count however many drafts you want to, there are players who have the capacity to alter a game. There are players who have the capacity to alter the trajectory of a team. There are very few players who have the capacity to alter the trajectory of the sport itself. Travis, while he still has a lot to learn, in our eyes, has the potential to do just that."
That's really nothing new for Hunter, who has been billed as a generational talent since he starred on both sides of the ball at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Georgia, then at Jackson State University, and finally Colorado -- defying traditional positional expectations as a full-time receiver and cornerback along the way.
Hunter's 2024 season at Colorado was one of the most impressive in NCAA history. He was the first player to earn two first-team All-America honors in the same season (all-purpose and cornerback), and he was a second-team All-American at receiver. He also was the first player in the history of the Walter Camp Football Foundation -- the nation's oldest All-America team -- to be named first-team All-America on offense and defense.
Those who coached him along his journey have called him a prodigy and football savant while noting his humility. Now Hunter has the challenge of becoming the face of a long-struggling franchise while trying to establish himself as the NFL's first full-time two-way player in more than 50 years.
No one has been a full-time player on both sides of the ball since Chuck Bednarik, who did it as a center and linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1949 to 1962.
To excel at both positions in 2025 would make Hunter one of the league's biggest stars, and those around him believe he can not only handle that kind of stage but thrive -- because he has been doing it all along.
"The amount of attention he had in 2021, 2022 as a high school senior -- I know it pales in comparison to the NFL -- but at that age, the way he handled himself [was impressive]," said Otis Riddley, who was Jackson State's director of player personnel when Hunter arrived.
And as his Jackson State and Colorado coach Deion Sanders said before the draft: "Ain't nobody like Travis."
IN THE SUMMER of 2018, Hunter showed up at Collins Hill High School for football workouts as a 150-pound kid with a bright, wide smile. Behind that smile, though, was a voracious work ethic and belief he had to be the best at whatever he did.
Hunter played in the secondary as a freshman. It wasn't until his sophomore year that he started playing receiver, too, intercepting seven passes and catching 49 passes, 12 of which went for touchdowns.
As a junior and senior he was one of the best players in the country, amassing 3,404 all-purpose yards and scoring 40 total touchdowns. He caught 222 passes for 3,030 yards and 36 touchdowns, ran 24 times for 239 yards and two scores, and intercepted 12 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns.
As a senior, he was named a first-team All-American and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Georgia Player of the Year.
"He was too good not to play everything, and he never came off the field," said Collins Hill head coach Drew Swick, who was the school's outside linebackers coach when Hunter arrived in 2018. "He just has a motor and a drive that I had never seen before."
Swick said Hunter was a worker during the summer, too. His daily four-hour workouts at the school started at 7:30 a.m., and then he spent time on his footwork with his personal trainer, Drew Johnson. He'd squeeze in some treatment, including cryotherapy to reduce inflammation, when needed each day.
When he wasn't doing any of that, he was watching film of future opponents.
"Most kids love football, but Travis Hunter lives football every single day," Swick said. "That's the best way I can describe it. He lives it every day and that's his No. 1 passion. And he is very, very good at it.
"He makes it look like an art when he is out there playing. Not many guys can do it."
Hunter's mother, Ferrante Edmonds, previously told ESPN that she moved the family to Suwanee in 2018 in hopes of a better life. After spending time living with a friend, the family eventually moved into an extended stay hotel. By his sophomore year, Hunter had asked to move in with Collins Hill secondary coach Frontia Fountain, which meant Hunter had to get to school early each day.
Fountain lived outside of the district, so Hunter had to ride with Fountain every morning, which meant a 5:20 a.m. arrival. School didn't begin until 7 a.m., so Hunter would catnap under the desk in Fountain's office for another hour or so.
Living with Fountain also meant homework had to be completed before he did anything else. No video games, no watching bass fishing videos (a hobby of his) or film of upcoming opponents.
"I knew he was going to be great because he was so focused," Fountain said. "He was so focused and driven. Only Travis can stop Travis, nobody else, because he's going to find a way to make it happen."
By the time his junior season began, Hunter was the No. 2 prospect in the nation in the 2022 ESPN 300 (defensive tackle Walter Nolen was No. 1) and was being recruited by top programs like Alabama, Florida and Oregon, among others.
Hunter made one thing clear to all of them: He wanted to continue to play both sides of the ball in college.
Florida State coach Mike Norvell expressed interest in Hunter doing so, and Hunter committed to play for the Seminoles in March 2020, five months before the start of his junior season.
But just as that school year began, Jackson State hired former NFL cornerback and Hall of Famer Deion Sanders -- who also took pro snaps at receiver over his 11-year NFL career that began in 1989 -- and Hunter's collegiate plans soon changed.
SANDERS, WHO PLAYED three sports (football, track and baseball) at Florida State, aggressively recruited Hunter, who took an official visit to Jackson State in November 2021 to watch the Tigers play Alcorn State. Hunter met Sanders' son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, on the trip and the two kept in touch. Shedeur Sanders later said that he encouraged Hunter to flip his commitment.
On Dec. 15, 2021, Hunter announced he was signing with Jackson State, becoming the first five-star recruit to sign with a historically Black college or university.
Having graduated high school a semester early, he enrolled in college that spring and caught two touchdowns and two interceptions in the Tigers' spring game, which was nationally televised on ESPNU after Hunter and Sanders helped raise the program's profile.
Hunter missed five games in his freshman season because of an undisclosed injury; he finished the season with 18 catches for 188 yards and four touchdowns on offense and broke up eight passes, intercepted two and scored a defensive touchdown. He was named a finalist for the Jerry Rice Award, given to the top freshman player in FCS football.
Riddley remembers how impressed he was with the way Hunter handled the attention he got, both from his decision to sign with the Tigers and the pressure that came with being one of the country's best freshmen.
"He was different from the day he stepped foot on campus," said Riddley, now the school's associate head coach/tight ends coach and general manager. "He was light years ahead and from the maturity standpoint, but he also was light years ahead from the work ethic standpoint. He doesn't mind working. He doesn't mind doing the things off the field to make him a better athlete on the field."
Jackson State had Hunter learn the defense first and slowly added some offensive workload. The process went quicker than anticipated, and Riddley said any hesitation the coaching staff had about Hunter playing both ways evaporated just a few weeks into spring practice.
"Once we got him on campus and saw how smart he was as a football player it was a no-brainer to allow him the opportunity to at least try both ways," Riddley said. "... I just think that he's a savant when it comes to football."
Check out the reasons Travis Hunter can be a superstar in the NFL.
Hunter excelled on the FBS stage when he transferred, following Sanders to Colorado in 2023. Hunter caught 11 passes for 119 yards and had three tackles and an interception in the Buffaloes' season-opening upset of TCU. Three games later, he caught 13 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns in a loss to Stanford. He had two interceptions against UCLA in Week 9.
Hunter missed three games after undergoing surgery for a lacerated liver, an injury he suffered in Week 3 against Colorado State. That season, he played 984 total snaps (sixth in the FBS), caught five touchdowns, intercepted three passes and allowed a 68.3 opposing QBR (ranking 282nd in FBS) in nine games.
In 2024, Hunter improved. His 15 touchdown catches were tied for second in the FBS, and his 96 catches were tied for fourth in FBS. He intercepted four passes and allowed a 21.6 QBR (57th in FBS) -- a big improvement from 2023.
In addition to winning the Heisman at the end of the season, he became the first player in college football history to win the Chuck Bednarik Award (defensive player of the year) and Fred Biletnikoff (most outstanding receiver) Award.
During those two seasons at Colorado, Hunter played 2,442 snaps over 22 games -- 457 more snaps than the next highest FBS player, OT Hayden Conner. There were 34 instances in which an FBS player played 100 snaps in a game; Hunter accounted for half of them (no other player had more than one such game).
"You have a prodigy that may play piano, you have a prodigy that may do violin, and then you have a prodigy that plays football, and I think that's what he is," Riddley said.
Swick, Fountain and Riddley all used the same word to describe how Hunter has been able to handle the constant attention, pressure and scrutiny of the past five years and remain the same kid he was when he first got to Collins Hill: humble.
"It's funny. I don't really see Travis like you see him," Fountain said. "Everybody sees Travis as the famous Travis. I see Travis as the little kid that used to ride home with me after school and ride to school with me in the morning. We talk about where he wanted to go to school and who he wanted to be and what it took to get you to the next level and the next level. That's what I see."
THE JAGUARS HAVE largely been irrelevant aside from their first five years of existence. Since posting four consecutive winning seasons and playoff appearances from 1996 to 1999, the Jaguars have had back-to-back winning seasons just twice (2004-05 and 2022-23) and only four playoff appearances (2005, 2007, 2012 and 2022).
Gladstone believes Hunter will be a major part of changing that.
"Travis Hunter, he embodies belief," Gladstone said. "He's a rare person. He's a rare player. But he's also a reminder that the boundaries of the game of football were built to be challenged."
That was the Jaguars' plan when they made the move to go get Hunter. They plan to start Hunter on offense and give him a package on defense, but they're not yet sure whether that means 45 snaps on each side of the ball, 75% on offense and 25% on defense, or any other breakdown.
First-time head coach Liam Coen said Hunter has been learning the offensive and defensive playbooks, but they opted to have him just catch passes during the Jaguars' two-day rookie minicamp and then get him some defensive reps for the first time this week -- which is the last week of Phase 2 of the offseason conditioning program.
Coen emphasized the need to be flexible in their approach with Hunter because everything depends on how quickly he can learn the offense and defense, his conditioning and stamina, and how quickly his body can rebound each week.
But the one thing everyone is sure about is what they want the result to be.
"We want it to look like what it looked like at Colorado," Coen said, "and that would be pretty good for us."
Hunter has embraced the challenge.
"My job is to come out and be Travis Hunter," he said. "Come out and play how they envision me to play and exceed all the expectations."
Stephen A. Smith reacts to the Jaguars' trade to move up to No. 2 and select Travis Hunter.
Hunter's former coaches are confident he will handle the spotlight that will come with playing both sides of the ball in the NFL because of everything he has experienced over the past five years, which includes having disposable income thanks to NIL deals with United Airlines, NerdWallet, Cheez-It, Dick's Sporting Goods and Hey Dude shoes, among others.
"And he has not changed," Riddley said, "just from a character standpoint in the years in between. I just think watching how he handled his recruitment out of high school and coming to Jackson State and then even going to Colorado, he did everything with grace. And for a kid that age, that's pretty remarkable.
"I don't see an NFL check or NFL lifestyle changing that because, even though he didn't have money three or four years ago, he's had money the last three years. And I know it's not first-round money, but I think the way he's managed himself up until this point, it doesn't lend me to believe he'll be a kid that'll be distracted from the lifestyle that he could be presented with off the field."
Hunter has been consistent in saying that he isn't pressured by anything. He wants to play both sides of the ball in the NFL and believes he will be successful doing so. He's not worried about what anyone thinks regarding that, nor does he concern himself with anyone who doubts that he can.
As for being a franchise changer, Hunter isn't thinking that way.
"I'm going to come out and do my job," Hunter said. "I'm not going to say I'm going to change anything. I don't want to set the expectation too high. I'm just going to come in and do my job and hopefully we change the atmosphere."