BOULDER — Joe Romig’s preferred TikTok hangs on a wall and chimes 12 times at noon. He’s not into winning Instagram, or what’s trending on Xwitter. But, boy, is he into Travis Hunter.
“I’d rank him at the top (in CU football history),” Romig, the former Buffs All-American lineman and College Football Hall of Famer, told me Monday. “(Because) he’s a great player both on offense and defense.”
Romig, whose two-way dominance as a guard and linebacker from 1959-61 made him a legend in BoCo lore, turned 83 in April. He’s seen more Buffs football in seven-plus decades than half of us will ever forget. And when it comes to Hunter, CU’s current two-way wonder, he’s seen enough. More than enough.
“I’m not at the top,” Romig laughed. “Hunter is way above me.”
Above Byron White, who set the bar?
Above Rashaan Salaam, who won the program’s only Heisman Trophy?
“When I played, one-platoon football was an NCAA rule. And so we had to play both ways,” explained Romig, who dominated college football to the point where he wound up sixth in Heisman Trophy balloting — as a guard, mind you — in 1961. “But when I went from offense to defense, or defense to offense, I was facing 11 other guys that were just as tired as I was.
“And when Hunter goes from offense to defense or defense to offense, he’s facing guys that have been refreshed by sitting out. So I give him a large edge.”
The Whizzer played under the auspices of a different era, a different time, different rules. Salaam dominated, and gloriously — but only on one side of the ball.
Could they have done then what Hunter — whose Buffs (4-1, 2-0 Big 12) host No. 18 Kansas State (4-1, 1-1) on Saturday night — is doing now?
“There are a lot of guys that could do what (Hunter’s doing) on an individual (platoon) basis — receiver, yes. DB, yes. But both? No,” offered Michael Westbrook, the greatest wideout in Buffs history and a consensus All-American in 1994.
“Could I get on the other side of the football and play DB as good as him and (then) come on the other side of the ball and play receiver as good as him (in a game)? No. So he can do both of those things as good as the best of us.
“In the NFL … you see athletes all over the place. NFL guys are amazing athletes who can jump high and run fast, twist our bodies all over the place. But to be able to understand both sides of the ball and be able to read and understand and make those plays? It’s unbelievable to see a kid in college, not even in the NFL, do what he’s doing.”
Hunter is college football’s Shohei Ohtani. One of one. The junior comes off the bye leading CU in receptions (46), receiving yards (561), touchdown catches (six), interceptions (two) and passes defensed (three).
Yet while the counting stats are fine, for Westbrook’s argument, those aren’t the stats that count.
Hunter’s already logged more than 650 snaps unofficially. CUBuffs.com statistics and TruMedia Sports chart their play counts differently, but the consensus is that No. 12’s been on the field for at least 305 on offense and 322 on defense. Whichever metric you follow, that’s around 130 plays per game, give or take special teams.
Which means, to Romig’s point, most of the guys he’s chasing are seeing 55-60 snaps. If that.
“He’s just a different cat,” ex-Buffs quarterback Steven Montez told me recently. “And the thing that’s most impressive to me is his ability to play the snap count that he does. Holy smokes, he’s playing 100-plus snaps per game.”
After the 1964 season, while Romig, a future rocket scientist, was busy wrapping up his graduate work at Oxford in plasma physics, the NCAA repealed its one-platoon rules and allowed unlimited substitutions.
That ushered in a new era for the sport, especially on the passing side. Quarterbacks only had to play one way. Kickers were brought in to just … kick. Specialists on offense or defense were deemed too valuable to their respective units to risk injury or embarrassment, on the other side of the ball.
Not Hunter. No. 12’s a throwback who came along at the perfect time and for the perfect coach in Deion Sanders, one of the greatest multi-sport athletes of the last 50 years.
“Champ (Bailey), (Charles) Woodson, not one of them (did) it like this kid,” Westbrook said. “Nobody. I can’t even hesitate to answer that question. Beyond a shadow of a doubt … that kid is special.”
Westbrook says what separates the Georgia native above himself — heck, even above White or Salaam — isn’t just what Hunter’s got going on within a set of mighty lungs.
It’s what’s cooking between his ears.
“He’s dangerous because he’s a wide receiver who can play defensive back,” Westbrook continued. “When you pass a ball to his side of the field, you’re throwing the ball to two receivers. That’s why coaches understand that and that’s why they don’t throw to his side. It’s like, ‘OK, which one of these receivers is going to catch the ball? Is it possibly the best receiver in the country that I’m throwing it to over there — or is MY GUY going to catch it?’
“It’s so much fun for me to watch because I always thought of myself as this crazy athlete because I knew I could do things that nobody else in the country could. Then you (say), ‘OK, maybe one or two guys.’
“Then you have Travis come and it’s like, ‘Wow, this guy actually is me on something. Plus he’s at my school. Making me look bad.’”
It’s starting to get awfully crowded at the mountaintop. Move over, Whizzer. You, too, Rashaan. Make room, Michael.
“People have said that about me, that I was the best athlete (at CU),” Westbrook laughed. “No. I’m not any longer. He is literally No. 1.”
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