Colorado
Colorado Star Travis Hunter Reflects on Decision to Flip From Florida State
Take a trip down memory lane to Signing Day of 2021, and you will remember a day when Florida State lost its highest-ranked commitment ever in a head-scratching, last-minute flip by now-Colorado star Travis Hunter to Jackson State. Currently, Hunter is a two-way phenom and Heisman hopeful under Colorado head coach Deion Sanders and is presumably headed to the 2025 NFL Draft.
Hunter recently went on The Pivot Podcast to discuss his college career and reflect on his decision to stick with Sanders, who is widely considered one of the best defensive backs to play the game. Sanders, now “Coach Prime.” convinced the former 5-star recruit to play for him at an HBCU and make waves throughout the college football world. The two left Jackson State almost as soon as they got there and Hunter has now become a household name.
READ MORE: Starting Linebacker Exiting NCAA Transfer Portal To Return To Florida State
“I’d say Coach Prime, he let me know he wanted me. When we had that conversation on whether I was gonna go or stay with Florida State, he let me know he wanted me,” Hunter said. “He’s like, ‘It’s going to be a big impact, but you’re a humble kid, and we know you can take on whatever comes your way, but it is your choice to make.’”
Hunter sits at the upper echelon of the Heisman rankings alongside Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, and Miami quarterback Cam Ward. The Buffaloes hold a 9-3 record and are set to face the BYU Cougars in the Alamo Bowl on December 28.
The 6’1” 185-pound star reflected on where he would be if he had ended up with the Seminoles and noted how emotional his last game as a collegiate athlete would be.
“I don’t know where I would be. I try to figure that out. I try not to think too much about it because we have one more game, and it’s going to be our last together. It gets you kinda emotional because it changed my life forever… I don’t know where I would’ve been if I went to Florida State.”
Playing both wide receiver and defensive back positions, Hunter is regarded as one of the most talented football players in college football. He has 1,878 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns on offense, paired with 43 tackles, three for a loss, and seven interceptions during his two seasons in Colorado. One of the reasons he said he chose to play for Sanders is that he could be on both sides of the ball and that he would be allowed to do that in Jackson State.
“I don’t think any other school in the world was gonna let me do that. It took him a minute to let me play both sides of the ball. Like he said, I had to dominate on one side of the ball first to earn my stripes to play on the other side,” Hunter said. “That’s the conversation we had before I got here. Like, ‘Coach, I’ve got to play both sides. I’m too bored on the sideline. I don’t like sitting on the sideline. I’m eager to go out there and get the ball in my hands and show you what I can do.’”
Regardless of where Hunter ended up, it is no surprise that he would be in the spotlight, given his prodigious athletic talents and work ethic. Wherever he lands at the next level, there is a good amount of certainty you will be hearing his name called on Sundays.
READ MORE: Florida State Legacy Wide Receiver Enters NCAA Transfer Portal
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Colorado
Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Friday morning wrapped up a warm storm across Colorado’s northern and central mountains, bringing totals of up to 10 inches of snowfall for several resorts.
Higher elevation areas of the northern mountains — particularly those in and near Summit County and closer to the Continental Divide — received the most amount of snow, with Copper, Winter Park and Breckenridge mountains seeing among the highest totals.
Meanwhile, lower base areas and valleys received rain and cloudy skies, thanks to a warmer storm with a snow line of roughly 9,000 feet.
Earlier this week, OpenSnow meteorologists predicted the storm’s snow totals would be around 5-10 inches, closely matching actual totals for the northern mountains. The central mountains all saw less than 5 inches of snow.
Here’s how much snow fell between Wednesday through Friday morning for some Western Slope mountains, according to a Friday report from OpenSnow:
Aspen Mountain: 0.5 inches
Snowmass: 0.5 inches
Copper Mountain: 10 inches
Winter Park: 9 inches
Breckenridge Ski Resort: 9 inches
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area: 8.5 inches
Keystone Resort: 8 inches
Loveland Ski Area: 7 inches
Vail Mountain: 7 inches
Steamboat Resort: 6 inches
Beaver Creek: 6 inches
Irwin: 4.5 inches
Cooper Mountain: 4 inches
Sunlight: 0.5 inches
Friday and Saturday will be dry, while Sunday will bring northern showers. The next storms are forecast to be around March 3-4 and March 6-7, both favoring the northern mountains.
Colorado
Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild
The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.
It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.
“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”
Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.
The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.
“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.
“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”
Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.
That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.
Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.
“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.
“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”
Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.
Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.
Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.
That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.
It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.
MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.
McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.
Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.
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Colorado
Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon
Late Thursday morning, a house fire spreading into the nearby woods in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon prompted officials to issue a pre-evacuation order to nearby residents. Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a house fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. in the 10600 block of Ralston Creek Road in Golden Gate Canyon, located around 25 miles west of Denver. The fire then began to spread into the nearby trees and grass.
Multiple fire units quickly responded to the scene, and the JCSO issued a pre-evacuation notice to all residents within a three-mile radius, warning them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.
At 12:34 p.m., the sheriff’s office announced that the fire is no longer spreading and the burn area has been contained to less than an acre. A photo shared by JCSO shows a structure nearly completely destroyed by the fire.
Pre-evacuation orders were lifted around 1 p.m.
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