Welcome back to the football field, Travis Hunter.
The two-way Colorado star, who suffered a lacerated liver in Week 3, made his return to the field for the first time in four weeks and scored an impressive touchdown in the first quarter of the Buffaloes’ game against visiting Stanford.
But it wasn’t enough as the Buffaloes blew a 29-0 halftime lead and fell 46-43 in 2OT to the Cardinal.
But the early signs looked promising for Hunter and Colorado.
With Colorado already up one score on the Cardinal, quarterback Shedeur Sanders led the Buffaloes down the field and into Stanford territory.
On a third-and-10 from the Stanford 21 and under four minutes to go in the quarter, Sanders threw a short pass underneath to Hunter, who was running a slant route into the center of the field.
Hunter, 20, caught the pass and kicked it into gear, and as linebacker Tristan Sinclair tried to bring him down before the first-down marker, Hunter used an unbelievable spin move that looked straight out of a video game to not only avoid the tackle but make Sinclair fall and grab at air.
From there, Hunter raced by two Stanford defenders untouched for the score, helping put Colorado up by two touchdowns.
Not only was it an incredible play, but it was also Hunter’s first FBS touchdown.
It was an up-and-down game for Hunter.
He had an impressive 13 catches for 140 yards and two touchdowns to go along with five tackles.
But Hunter and other members of Colorado’s secondary struggled and were unable to stop Stanford receiver Elic Ayomanor, who had 13 catches for an insane 294 yard and three touchdowns.
Earlier in the week, ESPN reported Hunter would be on a snap count after he suffered the injury on Sept. 16 after taking a late hit from Colorado State’s Henry Blackburn.
“I don’t want him to be a liability. I want him to always be a tremendous asset,” head coach Deion Sanders said this week. “Travis came to me [Monday] morning, saying, ‘What more can I do to help us get to the point that we need to get to?’ I love the team aspect of Travis 100%.”
Hunter, two weeks ago, had reportedly pleaded with his head coach to play against USC, a game that Colorado lost.
The Colorado receiver forgave Blackburn for the hit, and the two even went bowling in late September.