Daniel Shoch stepped up in the pocket and rolled out to his right. The quarterback at East Coweta (Ga.) High School — under pressure all night — saw his receiver open for a split second.

But there was a problem. Travis Hunter was on the other team.

“I threw it to where I thought only my receiver would be able to break on it fast enough to get back down to the ball,” Shoch said.

Predictably, this did not end well for East Coweta.

Hunter broke on the ball, snatched it out of nowhere and took it 70 yards the other way for a pick six on that Friday night in September 2021.

FSU commit Travis Hunter with the PICK 6 🔥 @TravisHunterJr pic.twitter.com/oWH82txcHP

— Overtime (@overtime) September 25, 2021

“I came to the sideline, our two backup quarterbacks, I remember them saying, ‘Look dude, that’s the No. 1 player in the country. We were standing on the sideline saying, ‘Throw it. Throw it. Oh crap, there’s Travis Hunter,’” said Shoch, now a student at the University of North Georgia.

Three years later, Hunter, the two-way sensation at Colorado and a Heisman Trophy hopeful, is still the best player in the country, or at least the most dynamic. He has played 844 total snaps (414 on defense and 430 on offense), 210 more than any other player in college football this season, according to TruMedia. His impact is unprecedented in the modern era.

Generational.#Big12FB | @CUBuffsFootball pic.twitter.com/jULOO67wZ4

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 28, 2024

No one in Georgia is surprised.

For those who had the privilege of competing against Hunter when he was the nation’s top recruit out of Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Ga., in the Class of 2022, this was only a matter of time.

“That’s the thing people don’t understand,” said Lenny Gregory, Hunter’s head coach at Collins Hill and now the head coach at Gordon Central (Ga.) High. “We saw (this) every day in practice.

“He’s like a human matrix.”

In the summer of 2018, Gregory received a call from someone at the local recreation department’s football program. There was a rising ninth grader, “a really athletic kid,” who had mentioned he’d be enrolling at Collins Hill in the coming weeks.

“So I met him on a Monday morning,” Gregory said of his first encounter with Hunter. “And I asked him, ‘Are you a baller?’ just kind of messing around with him. He just kind of, not rolled his eyes, but he just gave me this look and he says, ‘Baller? You haven’t seen a baller until you’ve seen me.’”

Gregory, taking note of Hunter’s confidence, told the 15-year-old to show up the following morning for a conditioning test.

All of Collins Hill’s players had been training together since the first week of June and spent every Tuesday running 200-meter dashes to prepare for the dreaded fitness assessment. To pass the test, players would need to run a series of six 200-meter dashes, each in 32 seconds or less. They’d have a one-minute break in between each run.

“So I said, ‘Are you in shape? Are you going to be ready to do that?’” Gregory said. “(Hunter) goes, ‘Oh, no problem, Coach. I can do that easy.’ And so I’m thinking, ‘Yeah he’s gonna run one or two and be throwing up everywhere.’”

The next morning, Hunter ran his first 200 with the Eagles defensive backs — a group of fast, athletic and experienced players.

“He smokes everybody. Bam,” Gregory said. “And I thought, ‘He’s done. This kid ain’t gonna be able to finish.’”

Then the second 200 came around.

“Boom. Smokes everybody. And I walk up to him, I say, ‘Are you all right?’ And he’s just standing there and he’s not even breathing hard. At all,” Gregory said. “And he goes, ‘Coach, this ain’t nothing. Let’s go again.’”

By the end of the test, seniors were splashed out on the track, exhausted and in pain.

Hunter, meanwhile, ran every 200-meter dash in 28 seconds or less, shattering the 32-second requirement.

“I’ve been doing the conditioning test for 20 years and I’ve never seen anybody do this,” Gregory said. “I’m like, ‘This guy is going to be special.’ I knew it right there.”

A few weeks later, Gregory and his team traveled to play Marietta High School, one of Georgia’s top programs at the Class 7A level.

Hunter was still raw as a freshman, but Gregory had already seen enough.

“We were warming up and we didn’t really have a chance to win that game. They were much better than us,” Gregory said. “But I remember pointing out Travis to my dad, who was standing (with me) before the game and I said, ‘You see that kid right there? That kid’s going to be one of the best players in the country. He’s unbelievable.’”

Hunter’s freshman season was relatively quiet, but he exploded onto the scene in the talent-rich Atlanta area the following fall.

As a sophomore, he finished with 49 catches for 919 yards and 12 touchdowns as a receiver and seven interceptions as a defensive back. He took another step as a junior, with 137 catches for 1,746 yards and 24 touchdowns on offense and eight picks on defense. He missed one month of regional play as a senior due to injury but still caught 85 passes for 1,284 yards and 12 touchdowns to go along with four interceptions.

“I’ve been coaching for 20 years or so and he’s easily the most dynamic player that I’ve ever come across in high school football,” said Philip Jones, the head coach at Brookwood (Ga.) High School. “It’s not even close.”

Jones first faced Hunter when Brookwood played Collins Hill to open the 2021 season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, but he’d previously watched him dominate — on both sides of the ball — in 7-on-7 games over the summer.

“He’s scoring every time he touches the ball,” Jones said. “At one point, he’s so wide open he catches it and he does a backflip in the end zone.

“Coach Gregory, who was his coach in high school, I saw him afterwards. We’re eating lunch and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Coach.’ It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before just watching a kid do that. And then coach Gregory didn’t even say anything really. He just kind of took his hands like he was wiping off crumbs or whatever off his hands and he just looked at me and was like, ‘Just get him on the bus, Coach. Just get him on the bus.’ He was like, ‘That’s my only job this year. Just get him on the bus every game.’”

Hunter dazzled in that 2021 opener, catching 13 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns while also intercepting a pass thrown by current Alabama backup quarterback Dylan Lonergan. Oh, he also threw a 28-yard touchdown pass on a reverse in Collins Hill’s 36-10 win.

“This. Kid,” Philips said. “In-sane.”

Two weeks later, Collins Hill played Greenville Christian Academy, a small private school from Mississippi, in the annual Atlanta Freedom Bowl. Greenville Christian coach Jon Reed McLendon said it felt “surreal” when his players found out they’d be playing against Hunter, whose highlights they’d already devoured on YouTube.

McLendon and his staff made sure to stress to their defenders that week in practice that they’d need to know where Hunter was at all times. Sure, he was dangerous on defense — “You’re almost just holding your breath, just hoping that disaster doesn’t happen,” McLendon said — but the idea of Hunter running loose on offense?

“It doesn’t necessarily matter if you cover him or not,” McLendon said. “That to me, was a little scarier.”

Greenville Christian played zone coverage that night, deciding that it was better to make sure not to let Hunter beat them with big plays. They rushed three and dropped eight as though they were facing an Air Raid offense.

The strategy worked … sort of. Hunter caught only four passes for 28 yards and no touchdowns, but Collins Hill won the game, 37-22.

McLendon looks back on the game with mixed emotions.

“On one hand, you’re really proud of the fact that our defense did a good job that night of limiting him,” he said, laughing. “But because it’s so special, just as a guy that loves football, you almost would’ve liked to in-person been able to see more of it.”

Alpharetta High School coach Jason Kervin joked he’d be happy to send McLendon some of Hunter’s highlights after Collins Hill beat his team in 2020 and 2021 by a combined score of 72-22.

“When we played them in the playoffs (in 2020), I said (to our defensive coordinator), ‘Look dude, I don’t care where they put him, we’ve got to double him. … Give everybody everything else they want,”‘ Kervin said.

“(Hunter still) scored the first two drives of the game. You don’t stop a kid like that.”

Hunter capped off his career by leading Collins Hill to the first state championship in school history. He was committed to Florida State for much of the 2022 cycle but — in one of the biggest recruiting shockers ever — flipped to Jackon State on the first day of the early signing period. He played one season in the SWAC before following Deion Sanders to Colorado.

Gregory has been fielding calls over the past few months from NFL teams about Hunter, who is almost a lock to be a top-five pick in the 2025 draft. The coach has made it clear to anyone who asks that as long as Hunter stays healthy, nothing is stopping him.

“I think the kid could play both ways in the NFL,” he said. “He’s the best skill kid I’ve ever coached or I’ve ever been around that I’ve been able to work with. And I coached in the Under Armour (high school All-America) game, like, seven times. So I’ve seen NFL guys and I’ve seen a lot. But I’ve never seen anybody like him as a skill player.”

No one has.

“We’ve played against Will Anderson and Justin Fields and those guys,” said John Reid, the head coach at Georgia powerhouse Rome High School. “You’re talking to a guy who’s seen some really good players. … But the Hunter kid is different.”

“I coached George Pickens and Marlon Humphrey,” said Kervin from Alpharetta. “I know what a first-round draft pick looks like in high school and you don’t mess around with those kids, I can tell you. Guys like that are gonna make you look stupid.”

As Colorado heads toward the final third of its season, Hunter is on pace to once again earn first-team All-America honors and is very likely to be in New York in December as a Heisman finalist. Last Saturday, Hunter caught nine passes (on nine targets) for 153 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Buffaloes to a win over Cincinnati — their sixth of the season, ensuring a trip to a bowl game in Sanders’ second season.

Across the country, those from Hunter’s home state of Georgia continue to cheer from afar.

“I think that he’s a Hall of Fame player. I can’t see how he couldn’t be,” Gregory said. “Just stay focused and keep doing what he’s doing and he’ll end up putting one of those gold jackets on.”

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images; courtesy of Travis Hunter)

Often it’s his awareness in the seconds before the snap that has turned Carson Schwesinger from zero-star prospect to hero of the UCLA defense.

Scanning the players across the line of scrimmage, he examines body positioning and mannerisms that can provide a tipoff.

Does the offensive tackle place both hands on his thighs? It’s probably going to be a pass.

Does the quarterback lick his hands? He’s probably going to throw the ball.

Does the running back stand a certain way? He’s probably going to take a handoff.

Down and distance enhance the likelihood of one play call over another. Schwesinger runs through the possibilities in his mind. Then he runs to where he thinks the play is going to develop.

“Once the play starts,” Schwesinger said, “you really only have one or two play options that are possible and then you react based off those.”

His instincts are usually right.

In the first five starts of his career, the redshirt junior linebacker has led the Bruins with double-digits tackles each game. Twelve against Louisiana State. Thirteen against Oregon. Fifteen against Penn State. Thirteen against Minnesota. Ten against Rutgers.

“He’s a heat-seeking missile,” fellow Bruins linebacker Kain Medrano said, “just going in there and causing havoc in any way he can.”

Along the way, the former walk-on has emerged as the Big Ten leader with 6.4 solo tackles per game as the Bruins (2-5 overall, 1-4 Big Ten) prepare to face Nebraska (5-3, 2-3) on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. He’s also the first UCLA player to log double figures in tackles in five consecutive games since current Dallas Cowboys veteran Eric Kendricks did so in 2014 on the way to winning the Butkus Award that goes to the nation’s top college linebacker.

His unlikely rise, combined with a perfectionist approach and wholesome demeanor, prompted one teammate to call him “Captain America.” Another went with “Sunshine,” a nod to the similarly blond-haired hero of “Remember the Titans.”

“He’s just one of those guys who does everything right, who does everything for the team,” said UCLA safety Bryan Addison, who came up with the “Captain America” nickname, “and then he comes out here on Saturdays and plays even better.”

It’s what Schwesinger does on every other day of the week that impresses most. Showing up at practice with the attitude that he must prove himself anew every time he steps on the field, Schwesinger reintroduces himself to teammates with another highlight play.

“In his mind, he starts from ground zero every single day,” said defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe, who has made Schwesinger the centerpiece of his scheme. “That’s a skill set that’s very rare and he understands that the way he made it through this path, it ain’t from taking a day off.”

Maybe that’s the only way to go about things when you’ve been forced to prove yourself from the start.

The brothers had long goofed around playing football in the backyard, even devising creative games while bouncing on the trampoline.

Now it was time for the younger sibling to get serious.

His brother Ethan already enrolled in a flag football league where the minimum age requirement was 6, Carson was only 5. At least that’s what it said on his birth certificate.

Carson Schwesinger, left, stands beside his older brother, Ethan, during a youth football game.

(Courtesy of Schwesinger family)

Representing the younger son as a year older than he was so that boys could play together meant that Dennis Schwesinger would get to coach them simultaneously.

“I don’t know if this is OK to say or not,” Dennis said with a laugh, “but we weren’t altering his birth certificate to make him younger, we were making him older.”

Carson continued playing with older kids even when he progressed to tackle, no one ever questioning his size or toughness. As he moved from linebacker to defensive end to guard to running back to safety, his father’s words always reverberated in his head.

“You’ve got to get in there and outwork them, outthink them, outperform them,” Dennis had told his son, “until there’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that you should be in there.”

By the time he arrived at Oaks Christian High after a year at Santa Clarita Christian, Schwesinger was almost impossible to keep off the field. He played both ways, starring at safety and slot receiver. He also tended to play hurt, forcing coach Charles Collins to keep a watchful eye on whether the gutsy guy was trying to hide an injury.

Whenever he wasn’t practicing or playing, Schwesinger could often be found immersing himself in another film session.

“He’s what I call a football junkie,” Collins said. “He loves ball — not just football but he the loves the actual part of scheme, so that comes from film study and understanding scheme and anticipation. Being on the other side of the ball, he has a unique advantage because he understands splits, spacing and down and distance and those type of things, which takes him to the play.”

Carson Schwesinger, left, and his older brother, Ethan, pose for a photo on a football field.

(Courtesy of Schwesinger family))

While Schwesinger was indispensable for his high school team, some bad timing limited his college opportunities. His senior year came during the COVID-19 pandemic. College coaches weren’t exactly flocking to campus.

When Chip Kelly, then UCLA’s coach, inquired about linebacker Ethan Calvert, Collins told him to consider Schwesinger. Eventually, Calvert went to Utah and Schwesinger became a Bruin as a walk-on after his only other offer — to a school he can’t remember today — would have required him to pay more in tuition.

“Sure enough it ended up happening that Chip brought him in there,” Collins said, “and right away he saw exactly what I was talking about.”

First impressions were made far away from the spot where he stars today.

As a member of the scout team for special teams, Schwesinger kept making plays.

“He was blocking kicks [in practice] and it was kind of like, what is he doing on the other side?” said Malloe, then the Bruins special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach. “I should bring him on my side instead of him embarrassing my special teams.”

Working in the shadows, Schwesinger felt encouragement when strength and conditioning coach Keith Belton learned his name and kept tabs on how he was doing. He was also championed by Malloe, who made a similar rise from walk-on to starting safety and linebacker on a Washington team that won a share of the Pac-10 title in 1995.

After never playing as a freshman, Schwesinger had dazzled enough in practice to earn a promotion before his redshirt freshman season in 2022. Near the end of fall training camp, Schwesinger was one of six players whom Kelly called in front of the team before making an announcement.

UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger (49) pressures LSU quarterback Max Johnson at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 1, 2021.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

They were now on scholarship.

In addition to the excitement he felt, Schwesinger also realized the importance of doubling down on his determination.

“When it’s a goal that you’ve worked for and it finally gets there,” he said, “you feel a sense of accomplishment, but also I wanted to keep going.”

Schwesinger appeared in every game in 2022 as a reserve linebacker and on special teams, making a combined 15 tackles. Last season, he reprised that role, making two tackles for loss among his 12 tackles.

A year later, he’s matched or exceeded his 2023 season tackle total in four different games. His ability to predict the play has led to the exponential rise in production given that Malloe said “60% to 70% of the game is won presnap.”

Schwesinger’s special talent is equaled by his capacity to make the tackle once he meets the ballcarrier. This requires knowing the player’s moves — will he try to run him over, spin around him or beat him with a burst of speed?

“He understands not just the fundamentals that we work on,” Malloe said, “but how it applies to a particular guy.”

Malloe’s scheme revolves around his 6-foot-2, 225-pound playmaker, the defensive coordinator doing his best to funnel plays to wherever Schwesinger is on the field. That trust, Schwesinger said, has allowed him to play freer and faster. It also has also helped make the most plays on the team, including two sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss.

“You just kind of get out of his way,” Malloe said. “If you let him be him, then we’re really, really good.”

One of the few times Schwesinger didn’t make the play this season, allowing Minnesota’s Darius Taylor to leak out of the backfield for a last-minute touchdown catch to give the Golden Gophers a victory at the Rose Bowl, Malloe apologized to the linebacker. Malloe said it was his play call that doomed the Bruins.

At the next practice, Schwesinger wanted to work on correcting the play so that it wouldn’t happen again.

“That’s the part that people don’t see — how intense he is toward being perfect,” Malloe said. “He understands that he won’t [be] but the intensity level and how much he studies film, to me he practices like a professional.”

Schwesinger’s film studies are rivaled only by his dedication to his bioengineering major. While most of his teammates slept, watched movies or chatted on the five-hour flight back from Rutgers, Schwesinger allowed himself a brief respite to finish watching “The Hangover” before shifting to homework in preparation for a midterm.

If a career in pro football doesn’t work out, Schwesinger said, he might develop the next generation of wearable electronics in sports. Maybe he could even create something to help others develop his instincts before a play.

In the meantime, he’ll continue working to remain a central part of UCLA’s defense, even if it may seem as if there’s no displacing him now.

“It doesn’t matter how good you think you are,” Schwesinger said, “you’ve got to make sure that everybody else thinks you’re that good to where they have to put you in.”

The lead-up to the Nov. 5 NFL trade deadline has already featured a good deal of action, as wide receivers Davante Adams, Amari Cooper, DeAndre Hopkins and Diontae Johnson all changed addresses within the last two weeks. Monday, the Kansas City Chiefs added pass rusher Josh Uche via trade with the New England Patriots to further bolster their defense.

The names of a number of prominent players, like the Las Vegas Raiders’ Maxx Crosby and Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett, have bounced around the rumor mill in recent weeks. Barring a change of mind by their team decision-makers, however, neither of these marquee pass rushers is going nowhere.

Intrigue continues to swirl around several other players who find themselves stuck on losing teams or in a logjam for various reasons. Rival teams with championship aspirations or gaping holes for the immediate or long term could enter the market for roster additions.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most prominent players/potential trade candidates being discussed in NFL circles, followed by a prediction of whether they will find themselves on the move or staying put by next week.

Prediction: Staying put

Young faces an uncertain future in Carolina despite the fact the Panthers moved up to take him first overall in 2023. Benched after two games this season, he sat for the next five before returning to the starting lineup last week after Andy Dalton suffered a sprained thumb in a car accident. Young delivered another mixed bag in the 28-14 loss to the Denver Broncos, completing 24 of 37 passes for 224 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The 2025 draft class isn’t teeming with top-level quarterback talent, so debate has swirled about how willing other teams would be to offer up something for Young. The Panthers, however, don’t seem ready to admit just yet that they erred so greatly in their Young selection. They’ll likely hang onto him and let him play out the string in hopes that he displays improved decision-making and execution.

Would Detroit, Atlanta or Arizona make a deal for Jadeveon Clowney? (Bob Donnan / Imagn Images)

Prediction: Moving on

A high-level pass rusher can turn a good defense into a great defense, and teams with championship aspirations could look to make a move at the deadline to increase their chances of achieving their goals this postseason. NFC front-runner Detroit needs pass-rushing help with Aidan Hutchinson lost to injury for the season. Atlanta, which leads the NFC South, also needs help at edge rusher. Arizona, which remains in the thick of things in the NFC West, also has been calling teams in search of pass-rushing help.

The 31-year-old Clowney’s skills are being wasted in Carolina, where the Panthers rank among the worst in the league on defense. A year after tying a career high with 9 1/2 sacks for the Baltimore Ravens, Clowney has only one sack for Carolina. Clowney still has something left in the tank and can help a team in the pass-rushing department. Part of the problem is how bad the Panthers are against the run. Opponents are taking advantage and running at Clowney, who at this stage in his career seems less than enthusiastic about serving as a run stopper. Clowney is believed to prefer an exit, and given the opportunity to stockpile picks for their talent-depleted roster, the Panthers will probably oblige.

Prediction: Staying put

The sixth-year veteran has fallen out of favor just one year after signing a three-year, $30 million contract with Chicago. He started 11 games last season, and two of the five he has appeared in this season, but has been a healthy scratch the last two weeks. The Bears would like to move on from the 28-year-old Davis, and he could probably step in for a team with injuries along the interior of its offensive line. But it’s hard to see a team willing to part with much for a player now reduced to a backup guard. The Bears say they still value Davis because of the depth he provides, and they just might have to settle for keeping him unless another team becomes desperate.

The Browns may keep Za’Darius Smith in hopes of a strong run in the season’s second half. (Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)

Prediction: Staying put

Teams have called the Browns about numerous players. And while it’s already been made clear that Garrett is untouchable, his bookend — Smith — leads the team with five sacks and is generating interest. The Browns could listen to inquiries about the 32-year-old Smith, but there’s a hesitancy to unload him as well because of a belief within the organization that a season turnaround isn’t out of the question. That belief will likely prompt the Browns to hang onto Smith.

Prediction: Staying put

The 31-year-old Smith hasn’t gotten as much playing time as he would like this season under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, so his name has recently come up in the trade rumor mill. The Packers are winning games and still view Smith as a valuable member of their pass-rushing rotation, however. With 2 1/2 sacks, he’s one of six Green Bay players with at least two sacks this season, and his 10 quarterback pressures rank second on the team. The Packers aren’t inclined to weaken their pass-rushing unit by subtracting talent as they find themselves in a heated NFC North race with Detroit and Minnesota.

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Prediction: Moving on

Despite back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons to kick off his career, Etienne has seen his workload diminish this season, thanks in part to a few nagging injuries and the simultaneous ascension of Tank Bigsby. At 2-6, the Jaguars can kiss any playoff aspirations goodbye, and they would do well to send Etienne to a team in need of improved running back depth now to get a head start on the roster implosion that is sure to come this offseason.

Prediction: Moving on

The Adams acquisition makes Williams expendable in New York. Williams spent the first half of the season working his way back into the flow after recovering from surgery to repair an ACL torn in Week 3 of the 2023 season. The usually sure-handed veteran had 11 catches for 160 yards on 19 targets in six games, but then didn’t receive a target on Sunday despite logging 36 snaps. Williams, who has averaged 57 catches for 879 yards (15.5 yards per reception) and five touchdowns a season, certainly could help improve the depth of a team looking to mount a postseason run.

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Bryce Young, Travis Etienne and Mike Williams: Brooke Sutton / Getty Images, Gary McCullough and Adam Hunger / Associated Press)