Travis Hunter finally had his moment in the pros when the Jaguars took on the Chiefs on Monday Night. Coach Prime’s Heisman winner made plays on both sides of the ball, and we got a glimpse of his generational talent. On a night when this should have dominated the headlines, the attention shifted to a rather grim narrative. Eli Manning mentioned that Hunter didn’t practice offensive snaps at Colorado. This was immediately debunked by the Buffs’ faithful, but then Jaguars head coach Liam Coen jumped in.

Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show, Coen didn’t exactly dismiss Manning’s comments. He further muddied the waters by saying that Hunter spent more time on the defense in practice rather than on the other side of the ball.

“He practiced on defense, excuse me, on offense at Colorado. It was 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,” Coen said. 

While the head coach’s interview caught the buzz, Deion Jr. thought of ending the debate once and for all. Resharing a clip of Coen’s take, Deion Jr. did not write long paragraphs. Instead, he dropped a YouTube link as evidence for his claim, “Travis Hunter’s FIRST TIME PLAYING CORNER BACK for COLORADO.” As we know, for the Colorado Buffaloes, there’s no better archive than Deion Jr.’s Well Off Media YouTube channel. 

Even before Deion Jr., this analysis did not fit well with the Buffs’ loyalist, Laura Levy. Quoting Coen, she came with a blunt jab, “It wasn’t as much?” According to whom? In Colorado, he practiced both.”

Time to take a look at Hunter’s Colorado stats that made Deion Jr. so defensive about his buddy. Back in Boulder, he piled up 1,989 receiving yards and 21 total touchdowns, while doubling as a lockdown corner with 67 tackles, seven picks, and 16 breakups.

If you are a Colorado fan and have followed the team the last two years, you know the work Travis Hunter put in on both sides of the ball. The narrative from Liam Coen is easily debunkable, and yet, the head coach carried on with it. But it didn’t start with him. Eli Manning started the narrative. Courtesy of Liam Coen.

Deion Sanders Jr. challenges NFL legend in Travis Hunter’s defense

On his Monday Night Football show, Eli Manning ignited the Travis Hunter debate. But these weren’t Eli’s words. He was merely sharing what he heard from Liam Coehn. 

“Liam Coen said when he [Hunter] was at Colorado, he practiced zero with the offense. He only practiced defense.” And obviously, this did not fit well with Deion Jr. Here came Bucky’s sharp reply; resharing the clip, he wrote, “Don’t let them lie to you, Mr Manning, he practiced WR & DB equally.”

Deion Jr. was not alone in this race. Coach Prime also fired back to make Bucky’s fight to protect Hunter stronger. After all, the father of five treated the ex-player as his son, going on fishing sprees. Already, Davante Adams’ quote had been doing the rounds, “I don’t think it’s possible to do [play both ways for an entire career] for real. That’s just a lot of mileage, and I don’t know how long… his career is going to be if he’s playing that many snaps?”

This might have encouraged the Buffs’ head coach to stand beside Deion Sanders Jr. “Well, I’ve been the head coach of Travis Hunter for three years, and he’s played both. It was not ‘mainly’ [any side]. He was mainly the dog. He was mainly the guy,” Deion said. “And to get the best out of him, you’ve got to feature him. You’ve got to keep him involved because he’s a big play waiting to happen.” Let’s see if the father-son duo can change the mass view on Hunter.