By now, Travis Hunter is no longer a newcomer in the NFL. But looks like still others are dragging his Colorado chapter when talking about him. The reason? The old debate on which position Hunter plays better: offense or defense, made a comeback, this time in the NFL. And how did it start? Thanks to Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen, who stirred Hunter’s pot. Later, it was taken up by Eli Manning. While the source for Coen’s Hunter comment remained a confusion, this time the coach himself made an appearance on Pat McAfee’s podcast, sticking to his opinion. Already, Deion Sanders and his fam are upset about it. Now his confidant, too, broke her silence to shield Hunter. 

That’s none other than Laura Levy. Levy’s LinkedIn profile reads, “#1 Coldwell Banker Realty Individual Agent in Colorado #CUBuff Mom / Store Owner.  An official Realtor of Colorado Buffaloes.” So, you can fathom how much he is protective of Deion and his program. So, as the Hunter debate gets bigger with every passing day, she came with a sharp jab on X. “”It wasn’t as much?” According to whom? At Colorado he practiced both,” wrote Levy. But what’s the context for the “It wasn’t as much” quote?

That’s when Coen comes into the picture. On October 7, the coach made an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. The head coach invited controversy by decoding Hunter’s scheme. “He practiced on defense, excuse me, on offense at Colorado. It was just primarily defense. And then that’s when he would go out, you know, look at the signals from the sideline, which is that’s what they did. They were a no-huddle operation. So I think it was, he practiced on offense, just not very much. It was way more on defense. He got in the walkthroughs on offense. And look, they used him and made him a Heisman Trophy winner,” said Coen.

Let’s just take a glance at Hunter’s Colorado stats for both positions. Hunter didn’t just play both sides, he owned them. Colorado’s two-way phenom piled up 1,989 receiving yards and 21 total touchdowns, while doubling as a lockdown corner with 67 tackles, seven picks, and 16 breakups. But looks like Coen is not much interested in Hunter’s college football stats. 

On the Pat McAfee Show, he shared his opinion,  “Yeah, he was just a little bit more primary on defense with, I think, the meeting time, the time allocated, and they caught him up more in the walkthroughs and maybe a practice or a period or two during the day in practice on offense. So he’s gotten to work at both. It was just a little bit more defense than offense there.” It was time for Deion and his fam to stand beside Hunter and teach Coen a lesson, verbally.

Eli Manning sparked the Travis Hunter debate

They did not wait for Coen and McAfee to discuss Hunter. Things got bitter with Manning’s interview on the Omaha Productions podcast. The podcast host asked the New York Giants legend for his opinion, “If you guys are coaching Travis Hunter, what is sort of the, like, percentage of where you’re putting him on offense, where you’re putting him on defense?” Without finding it himself, Manning chose to trust Coen’s version of Hunter.

He said, “Liam Coen said, when he [Hunter] was at Colorado, he practiced zero with the offense. He only practiced defense.” This is what did not fit well with Deion. The Colorado head coach did not waste time to fire back. Deion, being Deion, without mincing his words, clarified, “That was a lie. Travis Hunter played offense and defense. We started out with the ones on offense going for the first four or five reps, then he went over and played defense the next four or five reps, and he did it the whole practice. You know we have Well Off Media, Reach The People, and Neely; come on, man.”

It was time for Deion’s firstborn, the Well Off Media tycoon, Deion Sanders Jr. to make his dad’s stance on Hunter stronger. Resharing a clip of Manning’s interview, Deion Jr., aka Bucky, wrote, “Don’t let them lie to you, Mr Manning, he practiced WR & DB equally.” This is not the first time that the Jacksonville star found Deion Jr. by his side.

Back in July, Travis Hunter opened up about his Jacksonville Jaguars experience in a presser. “Just the work that you try to put in and when they try to criticize it’s like, ‘I’m already doing all this extra work, you’re gonna keep trying to tell me I can’t do the same thing that I’ve been doing and showing you,’ So, it’s just that, a lot of people keep downplaying it, but I’m gonna just keep being quiet and go to work,” said the former Buffs two-way phenom. He then found Deion Sanders Jr. support, who reshared the clip, dropped a short yet powerful reminder, “They gone hate anyway.” Lucky Hunter, no matter how much he attracts criticism, he has his old fam still rooting for him.