Last Saturday, Travis Hunter of the University of Colorado was awarded this year’s Heisman Trophy, given to the best college football player. Usually, the award goes to a quarterback, occasionally to a wide receiver or running back. Travis is a wide receiver AND a cornerback (a defensive player). That’s right, he played nearly every play.

Sean Keeler, writing for the Denver Post, sums it up:

Since 1980, no college football player at the FBS level had intercepted four passes in a season while also catching at least 90 passes and racking up at least 13 receiving touchdowns. Until Hunter.

And he is talented: watch this nonchalant one-handed catch in warmups.

What struck me, however, was his discipline:

Keeler writes:

Hunter told Fox Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff last month that his weekly routine includes “at least 10 hours” of film study. After being named an Academic All-American this past winter while sporting a 3.6 GPA, he switched majors from psychology to anthropology.

Hunter said in an interview recently:

I just have a different type of mindset where I don’t go out. I don’t drink, I don’t do none of that extra stuff. I go home, chill with my fiancé, play video games…I’m not going to do anything and keep my head in the right space. It’s going to be kind of hard (to repeat my career) because a lot of kids come in with different type of things on their mind. And so they’ve just got to be focused… But I definitely think some kids could do it. They’ve just got to be focused and ready to put all the hard work and the dedication for it.

He’s focused, he doesn’t drink, he works to keep his head “in the right space.” If another player wants to achieve, it’s focus, hard work, dedication.

That’ll preach:

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9.25, NIV)

…But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)