It appears that Travis Hunter will miss at least one more game for the Colorado Buffaloes.
CU’s star sophomore did not play in last Saturday’s 42-6 loss at Oregon because of a lacerated liver.
On Monday, Well Off Media posted a YouTube video in which head coach Deion Sanders shared a text exchange with the team between Sanders and Hunter.
Hunter wrote to Sanders: “I need to play this week. We need to get everything we can so I can get back on the field. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Coach Prime responded to Hunter by writing, “No, you ain’t ready and I care about you more than I care about this game. You’re gonna change the game of football one day when you’re healthy and ready. Your future is brighter than mine ever will be and ever was. Relax and get healthy. I love you son.”
CU (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12) will host No. 8 USC (4-0, 2-0) on Saturday at Folsom Field (10 a.m. MT, Fox) and certainly could use Hunter, who is arguably the Buffs’ best player on both sides of the ball.
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PHOTOS: CU Buffs handed 42-6 defeat by Oregon Ducks
Hunter was injured in the first quarter against Colorado State on an illegal hit Sept. 16. It was initially reported that Hunter could miss three or four weeks.
At receiver, Hunter has caught 16 passes for 213 yards. At cornerback, he’s posted nine tackles, two pass breakups and an interception.
ASU game time
CU will play a rare day game in Arizona next week.
On Monday, the Pac-12 announced that the Buffs’ trip to Arizona State on Oct. 7 has been slated for a 4:30 p.m. MT kickoff at Mountain American Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
Because of the heat, CU has typically played night games in Arizona. Since joining the Pac-12 in 2011, CU has made 12 trips to the Grand Canyon State to face either ASU or Arizona. Nine of those had kickoff times of 7 p.m. or later.
The three exceptions were all later in the year: a 4:30 p.m. kickoff in Tempe on Oct. 29, 2011; an 11:30 a.m. kickoff in Tucson on Nov. 10, 2012; and a 5 p.m. kickoff in Tucson on Dec. 5, 2020.
The ASU game will be the first this season in which CU will not be on national TV. Each team in the Pac-12 is contractually obligated to appear on the Pac-12 Network once for every nonconference home game. The Buffs had two nonconference home games and therefore must appear on the Pac-12 Network twice this season.
Bouncing back
Coach Prime hasn’t had to deal with bouncing back from losses very much in his college coaching career. In his first year at Jackson State, the spring of 2021, the Tigers went 4-3, including a three-game losing streak.
In his last two seasons, however, his teams were 23-3 and two of the losses came in the last game of the year. This will be the first time in more than two years that Sanders is coaching a team trying to bounce back from a loss. The Buffs are trying to rebound from the worst loss of Sanders’ college coaching career.
In addressing the team, Sanders said players and coaches need to be honest with themselves as they evaluate what went wrong.
“Where we go from now is vital,” he told the team. “What we do on this particular day is vital. How we proceed to take the next step is vital. What you think about yourself is vital. How you learn throughout this adversity is vital. Everything from here on out is vital because you think you were watched before, but now everybody has their eyes on you, because guess what? They want to know how you respond.
“We want know how you respond. Your teammates want to know how you respond. … I want to know how you’re gonna respond. I know what’s in this room. I still believe in what is in this room. I understand what it is in this room and I’ve got love for what is in this room.”
Notable
Pac-12 weekly awards went to: Washington State’s Cameron Ward (offensive player of the week); Utah’s Karene Reid (defensive) and Jonah Elliss (defensive line); Washington’s Rome Odunze (special teams); Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson (offensive line); and USC’s Tackett Curtis (freshman). … According to VegasInsider.com, Colorado is a 21.5-point underdog for Saturday’s game against USC.
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