NEW YORK – After winning the Heisman Trophy, Colorado star Travis Hunter hugged his fiancée and then his mother. When he got to Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders, the hug lasted a little longer.

He even went back in and put his head on Sanders’ shoulder. You could hear Hunter choking.

“I appreciate you, Coach,” Hunter said.

Hunter thanked Coach Prime for changing his life, but the same goes the other way around. Hunter is Sanders’ proof of concept.

His rise to stardom, fulfilling the promise of his five-star potential while playing full-time on both offense and defense, is Sanders’ most significant accomplishment as a college football coach. Hunter is the example Sanders can set for every other blue-chip recruit in the country: Here’s what I can do for you. Come and play for me.

More importantly, Hunter’s spectacular season should serve as an example to all those blue-chip players considering where to go to school: These coaches need you just as much, if not more, than you need them. Don’t be afraid to go your own way.

“I wanted to be different,” said Hunter, who also won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver and the Bednarik Award as the top defensive lineman. “So you know me: being different makes me feel better than following the norm.”

Coaches are constantly selling players on their ability to get guys to the NFL. The numbers suggest that Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State are better than most at developing NFL players.

The reality, however, is that what really sets these programs apart is their ability to recruit more players with NFL potential.

Hunter, a Florida native, could have attended any school in the country after playing his high school ball in Georgia. He was committed to Florida State but transferred at the last moment to Jackson State, a historically black university in the FCS.

It really was a path not taken. In the modern age of recruiting rankings, where the best of the best are identified and sorted earlier and better than ever before, no player of Hunter’s pedigree has ever chosen to play in the second tier of Division I rather than at the top.

For Sanders, plucking Hunter from his old school in Tallahassee was the ultimate recruiting coup.

“He told me it’s going to be bigger than anything else,” Hunter said. “It will throw the nation into turmoil. Younger children will look up to you from day one. And that’s all. So I made sure I stayed with him, stayed committed and stayed loyal to him.”

Sanders sold something bigger than just getting Hunter into the league. During ESPN’s Heisman show, Sanders said he encouraged Hunter to be “unapologetic.”

Hunter’s mother, Ferrante Edmonds, called her son a little silly. He wears onesies. He said he never really listened to music until his fiancée Lil Wayne opened his ears, appearing at Saturday’s ceremony to congratulate Hunter.

Hunter’s favorite activity besides football is fishing. He said he spent his Friday evening in New York watching fishing videos to relax.

“Loves the game, loves practice, loves his family, loves his mom, loves his dad, loves his fiancée,” Sanders said. “He wants to achieve excellence in everything he does, including fishing.”

When Hunter signed up for this trip with Sanders, it seemed like he was taking a risk. Could he maximize his talents without all the resources of the football factory, the huge weight rooms, the crowded training tables, armies of analysts and trainers, and a squad full of top colleagues to compete against in practice every day?

“I don’t think it was a risk,” Hunter said before the Heisman presentation. “It was God’s plan. You know, everything I wanted to do, I’m accomplishing now.”

After Hunter’s first season at Jackson State, Sanders became the coach at Colorado. He famously told his new players in Boulder that he was bringing his luggage and it was Louis Vuitton. That was Hunter.

With another chance to take the more traditional route to stardom, Hunter stuck with Sanders. He now wanted to play Power 5 football, but for the worst Power 5 program in the country.

Sanders took over a 1-11 program and improved it to 4-8 last year. The Buffs improved to 9-3 on the season, with Hunter putting on a Shohei Ohtani-like performance on both offense and defense.

How many coaches would have given Hunter the opportunity to play both ways like Sanders, who probably could have done the same thing when he played for Bobby Bowden at Florida State, with Hunter?

Hunter, along with Sanders’ son and star quarterback Shedeur, will play his final games for No. 23 Colorado on Dec. 28 in the Alamo Bowl against No. 17 BYU.

Sanders has maintained his intention to remain Colorado’s head coach if his sons – and he includes Hunter with Shedeur and defenseman Shilo when he says that – move on.

Hunter, who is expected to be one of the first players selected in April’s NFL draft, said this week that Sanders “isn’t going nowhere.”

It’s fair to wonder what the ceiling can be for a Sanders-led program. The Buffs’ 2025 recruiting class does include four-star quarterback Julian Lewis, a late flip from USC, but he is ranked 37th nationally in the 247Sports Composite. Sanders will lean heavily into the transfer portal. He won’t be an all-rounder when it comes to recruiting, visiting high schools and homes to win over players and their families.

However, he can tell those stars that he will let them shine, with Hunter as proof. Sanders’ program will remain one of the most intriguing in the country.

As for Hunter, a unicorn of a football player, hopefully the legacy he leaves behind will encourage more players to take the path less traveled.

“Remember to believe in yourself,” Edmonds said. “Never let anyone else tell you who you should be, what you should be, and how you should get where you want to be.”

(Image above: Dan Goldfarb / The athletic one; Ed Zurga/Getty Images)