Keeler: Travis Hunter does it again! CU Buffs’ Heisman Trophy hopeful clinches 38-31 win over Baylor in Big 12 opener

BOULDER — Travis Hunter made it reign.

“Shedeur (Sanders) told me to go out there and get the ball,” CU’s two-way, all-world miracle worker said of the rain-soaked fumble he forced to clinch a wet, wild 38-31 Buffs overtime win over Baylor. “So I told him, ‘I got you.’ And I kept my word.”

That’s the thing about the greats, isn’t it? The game finds them. The moment finds them. Even if they’re seemingly lost in a pile of humanity at the goal line, awash in a Flatiron mist.

Baylor tailback Dominic Richardson took a flying leap at the 2, down seven, and presumed he’d found safe passage to another possession.

Only when No. 12 is on the field, you presume at your peril.

“He made a play, which was amazing,” Sanders, the CU QB who was sacked eight times but still piled up 341 passing yards, including a 43-yard Hail Mary as regulation expired to force overtime. “But that’s the stuff Travis does.”

Not physical enough?

Can’t tackle?

Ask Richardson about that last one. Hunter (three tackles, seven catches, 130 receiving yards, a billion snaps) found himself isolated, 1-on-1, against a 6-foot-1, 216-pound hammer coming at full speed. The Buffs defender lowered his shoulder, led with his shoulder pad, and let physics do the rest.

“I mean, I knew I had to tackle,” the Buffs star explained after the game. “You could see me putting in my mouthpiece late on the play. So I was already ready. I knew they were coming at me. They don’t think I could tackle. So I had to show them.”

Almost single-handedly beating CSU and Baylor probably won’t move the Heisman Trophy meter much. But the more CU wins, the easier his case becomes. And for those quarterback-obsessed voters who remain unconvinced of Hunter’s bona fides, I’ve got seven words: Just imagine where they’d be without him.

Travis Hunter 38, Baylor 31.

Feed 12.

Trust 12.

Find 12.

The Bears couldn’t.

Hunter’s game-ending forced fumble made CU victorious in its first Big 12 game in 14 years. And sent a homecoming crowd streaming onto Folsom Field before the inevitable was confirmed.

“The game is not over!” the public address announcer cried.

“The play is under review!”

“Stop jumping on the field, please!”

They didn’t.

And the party was just getting started.

Baylor gave an inch. Shedeur took a mile high.

Travis Hunter 38, Baylor 31.

Bedlam everywhere.

Welcome back, Big 12. It’s like ya never left.

“Very hard to take,” Baylor coach David Aranda said. “(Our) team is very gutted right now — frustrated, gutted. And so we’re probably going to be hurting all the way back to Waco.”

They should. The Bears had about three chances to put CU away for good. Baylor returned a Mark Vassett punt the hosts’ 26-yard line, up 31-24, with 4 minutes left. The CU defense held, and the football gods smiled on Coach Prime. On a wet field with a wet ball, Bears kicker Isaiah Hankins fired a 46-yard field goal attempt with 2:19 left that would’ve put the Hunter and Shedeur Magic Show in a 10-point hole.

Wide right.

After two underwhelming — to put it kindly — offensive drives prior to this that managed a combined 27 yards on 13 plays, the Buffs got back to work. Shedeur Sanders recovered a potential sack-fumble on first down at his own 45 with 1:48 left. Then he ran 17 yards on second-and-24 from his own 31. On third-and-10 from the Baylor 43, the son of the coach rolled left and threw a prayer to LaJohntay Wester, who cradled the ball in the end zone.

“We have this (prevent defense) called ‘Victory Cigar,’” Aranda revealed. “It’s supposed to be that.”

Aranda’s cred is as a defensive whiz. But who names a coverage ‘Victory Cigar,’ and then leaves Wester in 1-on-1 coverage on a Hail Mary?

Somebody dropped the lighter, dude.

“They had three people on me, and everybody else backside had a 1-on-1 chance,” Hunter explained later. “So I just know, sometimes you’ve got to step back and let the team go ahead and play their role and let them come down with a good play. So, I trusted the process.”

That’s the thing about legends isn’t it? They can change a game just by their mere presence. Or in the case of Hunter, the fear of that mere presence.

And yes, in the macro, skeptics might call CU’s soggy Saturday victory a bowl elimination game. A matchup between two rosters with seven-win ceilings and disquieting flaws.