Colorado’s Travis Hunter, a 21-year-old marvel whose rare indefatigability became the foremost of his array of hallmarks, won the 90th Heisman Trophy on Saturday night in New York, becoming only the second full-time defender to win college football’s most ballyhooed award as well as only the fifth non-quarterback this century.

Hunter thanked Deion Sanders for changing his life, but the same can be said the other way around. Hunter is Sanders’ proof of concept.