Colorado officially retired the numbers of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders on Saturday.
The two likely first-round draft picks in the 2025 NFL Draft were honored in a ceremony at the Buffaloes’ spring game. The two players each spent two seasons in Boulder and helped Colorado become nationally relevant again after the arrival of coach Deion Sanders from Jackson State.
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It’s impossible to quibble with Hunter’s jersey retirement. He was electric in his time at Colorado and became the school’s second Heisman winner, thanks to a phenomenal 2024 season. Hunter was ubiquitous on both sides of the ball as a cornerback and wide receiver, and was Colorado’s leading receiver and top defensive back.
Sanders was a productive quarterback, especially in 2024. He completed 74% of his passes and threw for over 4,100 yards with 37 TD passes. He finished eighth in the Heisman voting. However, he wasn’t an All-American, nor did he win any major awards. Is his number getting retired if he isn’t the coach’s son?
“Let’s get the elephant out of the room. I don’t want to talk about this too long,” Deion Sanders said at a news conference. “I’m going to just talk briefly and let it go. We’re talking about Shedeur, we ain’t talking about nobody else. If his last name wasn’t Sanders, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Only reason we’re having this discussion is his last name is Sanders. OK? That’s it.
“There’s been so many things accomplished at this university expeditiously, it’s been unbelievable. And I think we should be appreciative and we should be thankful. We have a room full of wonderful people who covers us, and I don’t know if you all were in this room two or three years ago. I mean very few. It’s a new day. We’re doing things a little different.”
Deion’s right. But not in the way he thinks. There isn’t a discussion to immediately retire the numbers of Kyle McCord at Syracuse and Jaxson Dart at Ole Miss. Both quarterbacks threw for more yards than Sanders did in 2024, and both teams won more games than the Buffaloes did.
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Even if you think Sanders is the best quarterback in Colorado history after throwing for more than 4,000 yards in a winning season, what’s the rush to retire his jersey? It’s not like the Buffaloes won the Big 12 or sniffed the College Football Playoff. They didn’t even make it to the conference title game.
Former Steelers and Buffaloes linebacker Chad Brown has wondered why Colorado was moving so quickly to retire the players’ numbers.
Saturday’s jersey retirements are the fifth and sixth jersey retirements in Colorado history. Before the weekend, only Byron White, Joe Romig, Bobby Anderson and Rashaan Salaam had been honored with retired numbers. Salaam had been Colorado’s only Heisman winner until Hunter picked up the award in December. Salaam rushed for over 2,000 yards and 24 TDs in 1994 as Colorado went 11-1.
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But even Salaam’s number wasn’t retired right away. The school didn’t retire Salaam’s number until 2017 after his death. Salaam died by suicide in 2016 after he was found dead from a gunshot wound in a Boulder park.
The 2024 Buffaloes went 9-4 and lost the Alamo Bowl to BYU after a disappointing 2023. It was the best season for the school since 2016, when Colorado went 10-4 and also appeared in the Alamo Bowl. But it pales in comparison to the 1990 season, when Colorado went 11-1-1 and was declared the Associated Press national champions after a 10-9 win over Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.
No one from that team has a jersey retired, including longtime NFL assistant Eric Bieniemy. He rushed for 1,627 yards and 17 TDs in that national title-winning season and had rushed for 1,243 yards in 1988. Bieniemy finished third in the Heisman voting in 1990 behind Ty Detmer and Rocket Ismail.
A year after Bieniemy left Boulder following that national title, Kordell Stewart arrived. Stewart was one of the most dynamic players in college football during his time at Colorado. He threw for over 2,000 yards and rushed for over 600 yards in 1994 as Colorado went 11-1 and ended the season at No. 3 in the AP Top 25. If you ask longtime Colorado fans if Stewart or Shedeur Sanders had a bigger impact with the Buffaloes, you’re likely to get more responses in favor of Stewart.
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Stewart’s number isn’t retired either. Nor is WR Michael Westbrook’s number. He was an All-American in 1994.
If moving to retire Hunter’s and Sanders’ numbers so soon after their careers are over is a newfound push by the athletic department to quickly honor key contributors, it’s a noble endeavor. Colorado waited too long to retire Salaam’s number.
But if that’s truly the case for Colorado, why aren’t Hunter and Sanders having their numbers retired alongside Stewart, Bieniemy and others? Football is, after all, a team game, and Colorado has had far more successful seasons than it did last year.
Sanders was excellent in 2024. His season shouldn’t be diminished. But it also shouldn’t be exaggerated, either. Honoring a player with no major awards from a team that didn’t even get to 10 wins while others who led Colorado to the best seasons in program history aren’t given the same recognition is recency bias at its finest.
