An illegal hit on Colorado football star Travis Hunter will cause him to miss some game time, while the player who delivered that hit has been dealing with threats against him and his family.
During the first quarter of Colorado’s 43-35 double overtime win against Colorado State at Folsom Field on Saturday, CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders tried to connect with Hunter on a deep pass down the left sideline. CSU’s Ayden Hector was flagged for pass interference, but the hit that injured Hunter came after the play.
CSU safety Henry Blackburn, a graduate of Fairview High School in Boulder, was about five yards away from Hunter when the ball fell incomplete but he continued pursuit, lowered his shoulder and hit Hunter in the mid-section. Blackburn was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and remained in the game.
Hunter, a rare two-way starter at receiver and cornerback, immediately took his helmet off and rolled over in pain, staying on the ground for a few moments. Although he came back into the game briefly, Hunter was taken to the hospital, where he was kept overnight on Saturday.
CU has not released details on Hunter’s injury, but Fox’s Skip Bayless, the host of Undisputed, reported Monday on his show that Hunter suffered a lacerated liver and would be out three or four weeks. Carl Reed of 247Sports reported that CU head coach Deion Sanders told him Hunter would be out for three weeks.
A BuffZone source confirmed Bayless’ report on Monday morning.
On his Bleacher Report show “12 Talks,” on Monday evening, Hunter said, “It’s football. Something bad is gonna happen on the field sooner or later. You just gotta get up and fight again. That’s what I tried to do, get up and fight. Good thing the doctors stopped me because if there was no doctors there, I would have still been out there playing.”
Hunter added that his recovery includes a lot of rest.
“Let the body do what the body has to do,” he said. “Let the body go to work.”
Bayless said the injury is “not considered terribly serious,” but it does appear to be serious enough to take the best player off the field for the 19th-ranked Buffaloes for two of their most important games of the season. CU (3-0) visits No. 10 Oregon in the Pac-12 opener on Saturday (1:30 p.m. MT, ABC) and will host No. 5 USC on Sept. 30 at Folsom Field (10 a.m. MT, Fox).
After the game, Coach Prime said, “First thing I heard that he would be out for a few weeks. I heard that for sure. But we’re gonna do what we got to do to take care of him. I know Travis like a book. He probably is gonna want to be out for two weeks. But we’ve got to make sure … his health is more important in this game.”
On the field, however, it’s a tough loss for the Buffs, as Hunter is considered one of the best all-around players in the country. He caught two passes for 21 yards and recorded two tackles before his injury.
Hunter has caught 16 passes for 213 yards and recorded nine tackles and two pass breakups this season while playing the majority of snaps on both sides of the ball.
“The bad thing about losing Travis, man, you lose such a crucial piece of our team,” safety Shilo Sanders said. “He’s on offense and defense, so it’s like you’re losing two players in one. So that was pretty rough.”
Shedeur Sanders quickly confronted Blackburn after the hit and said after the game it was tough to see Hunter go down.
“When Travis went down like it made me feel some type of way, honestly, because you took, like, one of my brothers, you know, on the offensive side,” Shedeur said. “It really hurt me a lot knowing the work he put in and everything just leading up to the game and knowing you could always count on him in those moments.”
Blackburn, meanwhile, has been the target of threats, according to CSU head coach Jay Norvell.
“We had a player get death threats and his family get death threats and their address be posted all over Instagram and social media,” Norvell said at his weekly press conference. “I just don’t think those kind of things have any place in college football. I hope there can be some accountability in that type of behavior. I’m very concerned for our kids. … There’s really no place for that in athletics and sports.”
Norvell said Blackburn is getting support because of the threats.
“Our university is supporting him,” he said. “The police department is supporting him because of the seriousness of the threats that have come out of this. It’s just sad that’s the state of the world we live in. It’s a football game. Let’s not make it more than that. We don’t want anybody to get hurt. We don’t coach that kind of football.”
CSU athletic director Joe Parker told ESPN: “We’re very concerned about our player’s safety, as Henry and his family have continued to receive these threats. Henry never intended to put anyone in harm’s way on the football field. It’s not what we teach or coach. We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately.”
With the spotlight shining on Coach Prime and the 2023 Buffs, the hit has drawn national attention, with Bayless saying Blackburn’s hit “felt game planned.” Undisputed co-host Richard Sherman said, “It makes me feel like they set a bounty out.” Others have called for Blackburn to be suspended, but the Denver Post reported that he won’t be suspended.
“That’s certainly not something that we teach or coach; it happens in football sometimes,” Norvell said of the hit. “I hope Travis gets healthy and gets back out there. We certainly don’t want to see anybody get hurt.”
