Deion Sanders: Colorado's Travis Hunter Out 3 Weeks with Injury from Late Hit by CSU

Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders said two-way star Travis Hunter will miss three weeks with an injury suffered on an illegal hit by safety Henry Blackburn, per Carl Reed Jr. of 247Sports.

Sanders has not disclosed the nature of Hunter's injury. During Monday's Undisputed, Skip Bayless of FS1 reported Hunter suffered a liver laceration from the hit.

Hunter briefly returned to the game after the hit but was later taken to the hospital. He had two catches for 21 yards on offense and two tackles on defense before exiting the game for good.

Colorado, which trailed 21-14 when Hunter left, came back for a 43-35 victory over Colorado State in what was a heated in-state rivalry game. Colorado State was called for 17 penalties totaling 182 yards, many of those being of the personal foul variety.

"We showed that we would fight," Sanders told reporters of his team's performance. "We showed that we had no surrender or give up in us. That's a lot for a team that's fairly new."

Colorado is off to a 3-0 start and ranked No. 19 in the country as Sanders' first season in Boulder has gotten off to a stellar start. The Hall of Famer took over a program that went 1-11 last season and has just two winning seasons over the last 17 years—one of which came during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.

Hunter, who followed Sanders from Jackson State, has emerged as a two-way superstar. He recorded 16 receptions for 213 yards as a receiver while adding nine tackles and a pick as a lockdown corner over the first three games of the season.

The absence of Hunter could not come at a worse possible time for Colorado, which travels to No. 10 Oregon this weekend before hosting No. 5 USC on Sept. 30.