FORT WORTH, Texas — Get your popcorn. The Travis Hunter trailer just dropped, and the season-long film will be a Boulder blockbuster.

“Travis is him,” Deion Sanders grinned Saturday after his CU Buffs shook college football with a 45-42 win over No. 17 Texas Christian, silencing a full house at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Coach Prime claimed nobody believed in the Buffs before the program’s biggest win in 30 years: “We have receipts!” Sanders shouted outside the locker room, which thumped rap music and should be renamed Club Prime. The Buffs were 3-touchdown underdogs and won.

“Football is football no matter who you’re playing,” Hunter said.

Oh, sorry. Make that “Heisman Trophy candidate Travis Hunter.” My bad. I wouldn’t want to give Coach Prime another memento for the bulletin board before Nebraska visits Folsom Field on Saturday. By then, the Buffs deserve to be ranked in the The Associated Press Top 25, and Hunter should be right next to USC’s Caleb Williams on your favorite Heisman watch list.

CU was that good in Prime’s hysterical debut. Seriously, consider the circumstances and try not to laugh at the absurdity: TCU, coming off an appearance in the national championship game, and CU, coming off a 1-11 season that made CU athletic director Rick George take a swing on Coach Prime. Cover up the jerseys and you wouldn’t have known which was which.

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders, a Buffs-record 510 passing yards. Before answering questions after his FBS debut, Shedeur turned his iPhone on selfie mode and smiled into the screen.

“Making sure I don’t have anything in my teeth,” he explained.

Running back Dylan Edwards, a true freshman, raising four fingers to the Texas crowd after his fourth touchdown. Four Buffs receivers with over 100 receiving yards, a program first. The first win over a ranked team since 2018. The highest-ranked win since 2009. The first top-20 road win since 2002. Smile big, Shedeur.

“I knew we were going to do this,” he said. “The scoreboard is telling y’all that.”

And Hunter was that good, too. He was so good you saw the result if you cloned Michael Westbrook on offense with Deon Figures on defense. You get an all-time Buffs wideout and an all-time Buffs defender in one sweet all-white uniform. Hunter played offense and defense and was better than everybody else at both. He had 11 catches for 119 yards… and made a key interception. Another near-catch would have gone for 50 more, another for 50 more. Hunter played over 110 total snaps.

“He gets those two deep balls, the Heisman is chillin’ at his crib right now,” Prime said on Fox.

Nikola Jokic and Nathan MacKinnon have a new buddy as can’t-miss athletes in Colorado.

A defensive player hasn’t been awarded the Heisman Trophy since Michigan great Charles Woodson in 1997. Hmmm. Didn’t Woodson leave his college mark as a two-way player, too?

Between Sanders and Hunter, the Buffs have the only man who played in a World Series and a Super Bowl coaching a generational two-way player. How about that? Hunter wore a T-shirt with Prime’s photo that read, “DEION SANDERS.” Prime calls Hunter “my other son.”

The Buffs are each other’s best promoters.

“I really think we got a couple guys that should be frontrunners for the Heisman right now (in Hunter and his actual son),” Coach Prime said. “That’s really how I feel.”

It’s a brilliant coaching strategy when you think about it. Coach Prime hogs the spotlight and deflects all the pressure from his star players. Then the star players shine in a nationally televised season opener, and Coach Prime shifts the spotlight back onto the star players.

Name a 4- or 5-star recruit who wouldn’t sign up for that game plan in college.

Frogs fans did not feel the same. One brought a sign that said, “Deion had more toes cut off (two) than CU had wins (one).” And as a police escort rushed the Buffs buses to the airport for a satisfied flight home, TCU folks flipped ’em a Texas thumbs up from their pickup trucks.

“We are going to be continuously questioned, because we do things that have never been done,” Prime said.

The new Buffs carry a chip on their shoulder as tall as the Flatirons and as wide as Texas.

“I’m here and I’m not going away,” Prime said. “I’m about to get comfortable in a minute.”

No one wins the season after one game. But a Heisman candidate was born Saturday in the state of football. His name is Travis Hunter.

“I tried to tell you,” Sanders said. You didn’t want to believe me.”

How do you flip a 1-11 program? It’s about the Xs and Os, but more about the Jimmy and Joes.

“Everything our coaches prepared us for happened,” Shedeur said.

Hunter dominated a top-25 team on offense and defense. This Heisman candidate is a Jimmy and a Joe.

Colorado cornerback Travis Hunter (12) catches a pass for a first down against TCU cornerback Avery Helm (24) during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

LM Otero