JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is John Dever. And thank you for joining us this afternoon here at the Miller Electric Center as we welcome the newest Jacksonville Jaguar Travis Hunter back to his home state of Florida.
Let's do just that. James, I believe you have some opening remarks to make here.
JAMES GLADSTONE: As we sit here, Travis Hunter is a Jacksonville Jaguar, and really what comes to mind for me, thinking about the sport of football and really the power of the game itself, right? It's capacity to ignite belief -- belief in ourselves, belief in others, belief in achieving what many may deem impossible.
Travis Hunter, he embodies belief. He's a rare person. He's a rare player. But he's also a reminder that the boundaries of the game of football were built to be challenged.
So the decision to select him was actually a statement, a statement for how we plan to move who we are, and we want him to be nothing more than him because, when he is, he elevates the space around him.
From the football field to the city to the game of football itself, Travis Hunter is who we've been hunting up. Couldn't be more jacked to be sitting right here beside him and introduce you all to the man of the hour.
(Applause.)
JOHN DEVER: Thank you, James.
As we get into the Q&A here with the media, please direct your questions to Liam, James, or Travis, and identify yourselves, and we can begin the learning process.
Let's begin. Who's got the first question?
Q. Travis, how did you get the football?
TRAVIS HUNTER: How did I get the football? Walked in the building and took it from Coach.
Q. You took it from him?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Yeah, he was over there playing with the football, and I was like, let me hold that.
Q. So you've had it for how long now?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Since I walked in the building.
Q. What's it been -- a whirlwind last night, today. Take me through, take us through what the last 12 hours, 15 hours have been like.
TRAVIS HUNTER: It's been exciting. I normally go to sleep on planes, but I stayed up the whole time just looking out the window.
Q. Why so?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Why? Just excited to get here and be able to come back home and be able to get to work.
Q. Travis, everybody regurgitates all your stats -- receiving yards, interceptions, all that stuff. What probably a lot of people don't realize is that you're a 4.0 student. There's not many high end first round draft picks that have that kind of GPA. So I'm wondering -- I'm assuming you've been a very good student for a very long time. Where does that mindset come from? Is it a matter of feeling that's a challenge just like a game, or is it a mindset that was sort of passed on to you by a family member about the importance of being well rounded?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Just the mindset of trying to be the best at everything I do. I don't want nobody to do or have a step ahead of me. So I just want to be at the best at everything. That's including work.
I hope I can go back and walk the stage May 8.
Q. Travis, we've heard you talk about a lot of coaches that have helped you in the past. Obviously Coach Prime and your coaches over at Colorado, JSU. Talk about Coach Drew Johnson. Just what was he able to do for you, just laying the foundation for you as a player?
TRAVIS HUNTER: He helped me out a lot. I got my footwork right. He didn't have to put the dog in me. It was born in me. He got my footwork right and helped me out a lot with my footwork and helped me understand the game.
Q. You talked about this a lot, how much you love your family, how much you want to be with them and help them and do anything you can. How have you been -- how has it been with your family during these times? How have they sort of motivated you to help you get here to where you are today?
TRAVIS HUNTER: I have my little brother. He motivates me because he's trying to be better than me. I've got to set the bar high.
Q. Travis, what does it mean to you seeing a team have that kind of commitment and faith to go up and get you and do what they have to do and have you be their guy the whole process?
TRAVIS HUNTER: It gives me a sense that they believe in me. They trust in everything that I've done thus far. I've just got to go out there and prove them right.
Q. Travis, great to meet you in person. Favorite class you took at Colorado or Jackson State?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Favorite class? I couldn't really tell you I have a favorite class because I just got the work done.
(Laughter).
Q. Did you have a favorite subject growing up?
TRAVIS HUNTER: My favorite subject growing up was math. I'm super, super good at math. Not really. I don't really have a favorite class or favorite subject.
Q. One more on the school front. For you, walk us through this idea of you were born in West Palm Beach. You were once upon a time almost going to go to Florida State. To come back to Florida, is there this sense of maybe destiny? What have the emotions of specifically coming here meant to you in the last 24 hours?
TRAVIS HUNTER: It meant that I can fish year round, it's hot here, and I get to see family all the time.
Q. Travis, let me give you a hypothetical real quick because of your competitiveness. It's fourth and seven. You break the huddle. It's one-on-one. Travis Hunter the wide receiver sees Travis Hunter the corner across from him, and the ball is coming your way. Which one of you all comes down with it?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Travis Hunter.
(Laughter).
JOHN DEVER: Really good answer.
LIAM COEN: It's a correct answer.
Q. Travis, you changed or helped change Jackson State, put them on the map. Colorado, helped change. How can you help change Jacksonville and the trajectory of this organization?
TRAVIS HUNTER: I'm going to come out and do my job. I'm not going to say I'm going to change anything. I don't want to set the expectation too high. I'm just going to come in and do my job, and hopefully we change the atmosphere.
Q. What's it like having Brian Thomas Jr. on one side of the field and you on the other side of the field. How would you defend that as a defensive coordinator or a cornerback?
TRAVIS HUNTER: I'm not going to let them know how to defend us, so I can't say.
(Laughter).
Q. Travis, what do you think about what James said a few minutes ago about you being not only draft pick, all that, but a statement for this franchise and the rest of the week?
TRAVIS HUNTER: What do I think about it? It was a great choice. I've just got to come and do my job.
Q. Travis, congratulations. Brian Thomas Jr. had such an amazing rookie season. How much can you learn from him? Have you gotten a chance to talk to him yet? How big will he be in your development in terms of getting some advice from him on how he was able to really get acclimated to the NFL so quickly?
TRAVIS HUNTER: He will be big for me. He did a great job his rookie season. I've got a lot to improve on myself. So I'm going to ask him a lot of questions. He'll probably get annoyed because I'm going to ask so much questions.
I want to be the best. I want to be better than him. So I'm going to try to soak up all the knowledge that he allows me to take from him.
Q. Last night James said that you're one of the few players that can actually change the sport itself. I'm wondering what you think when you hear your new GM say that.
TRAVIS HUNTER: It's a blessing, but I've still got to do my job.
Q. Have you been able to talk to or meet any of the other Jaguars players?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Yeah, I talked to Trevor Lawrence.
Q. What did you guys talk about? Can you share that?
TRAVIS HUNTER: He's just ready to work.
Q. You've been in Jacksonville before. When Jackson State came here against Cookman in '22, you were a freshman on that team. I presume that was one of the first times you had a chance to be in an NFL stadium. What was it like to -- even though you didn't play in that game, what was it like to be in this atmosphere, be in Jacksonville? And I think there's a video floating around social that said you could envision yourself being here. Describe being able to envision something and making it come to pass.
TRAVIS HUNTER: It's just a blessing seeing it come full circle. It's been three years since I said that. So I'm just happy to be here and be able to walk on the field again.
Q. One follow-up. Referencing your time in Colorado, four-win season that first season you were out in Boulder. Obviously the Jaguars just won four games. What did you learn about yourself during that season, and what did you share with your teammates that maybe you could bring here to Jacksonville?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Just got to lock in more, got to be willing to do the extra work. That's what we did to bring everybody together, and we won a lot more games by doing it.
Q. I've heard you say a couple times now, Travis, do your job, just do your job. What does that look like? What does that mean? What is your job?
TRAVIS HUNTER: My job is to come out and be Travis Hunter, come out and play how they envision me to play and exceed all the expectations.
Q. Liam, speaking of envisioning, now that this became official last night, I'm sure you've conjured up some things in your mind for the last couple of months or couple of weeks, whatever it is. How much is your mind moving over the last 12, 15 hours of what you can do on the offensive side of the ball?
LIAM COEN: The offensive mind in you starts to get extremely excited, right? You have to switch back to being, hey, I'm a head football coach. We know that he's going to be able to do both. We feel that in our bones. We're going to set that up that way from a schedule, from an operations standpoint, the way that we're going to operate for him, to set him up to have the most success that he can to, in fact, then help the Jacksonville Jaguars become the best version of ourselves.
That's been something we've been excited about talking through the last month. To meet him here again in person today and be around him only just validates that.
Q. Liam, I'm assuming there's going to be that inevitable tug of war between you and Coach Camp about getting him as much as possible. Does the head coach automatically win that? Have you guys talked that through?
LIAM COEN: We have. We've had those conversations. We have to be fluid. We kind of mentioned this last night in terms of from a scheduling standpoint, all those things, we have it laid out.
We also have to have the ability to be agile and be fluid on specific days. If we don't feel like got enough work on one side of the ball the previous day, then we need to be able to move forward and get him those reps the next day.
Both Camp and I and Grant are all on the same page about, hey, how is this thing going to work? What do we want this to look like. We want it to look like what it looked like at Colorado, and that would be pretty good for us.
Q. Travis, obviously coming into the NFL, just that in itself is enough motivation for you to do your best. I'm wondering, is there any extra motivation because the Jaguars sacrificed a lot of draft capital just to move up three spots to get you?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Yeah, it's definitely a lot of motivation. They sacrificed a lot to get me. That means they believe in me. That just validates that I need to go ahead and just do my job.
Q. Travis, you mentioned last night that you're house hunting, that you looked. Did you find something already?
TRAVIS HUNTER: No, I'm still looking, but I found a couple houses.
Q. What does the rest of this weekend or next week look like for you in terms of getting acclimated and adjusted and settled before?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Probably just grab the playbook, get my boats shipped down here, and get on the water (laughter).
Q. James, you guys talked about getting sports science involved. Does that -- can you give a rookie extra time if he's going to play 100 snaps? Do you give him extra rest during the week to get him ready for the next 100 snaps? How does that work?
JAMES GLADSTONE: There's a lot of layers to that. Certainly we have to operate within all measures in compliance with league mandates, but at the same time, yeah, there's a certain level of recovery and preparation in order to take on the workload that he's about to sort of take on.
I can say right, I think the first question came from Gene today around the football. It was Mike. Don't mix the two of you guys again. I don't know who it was that asked about the ball, who asked about the football last night, but it didn't take long for Travis to produce his first takeaway. So it's going to be a fun go, if that's what we see here on the horizon.
Again, it's got a lot of layers to the sports science front and making sure we're operating on all cylinders.
Q. Last night James talked about being bold and having confidence and kind of lacking fear and not letting that mold his life. I wanted to ask you about your confidence coming in. You said you want to play both ways. They want you to play both ways. Where did that confidence come from, and how long did it take to you kind of develop it?
TRAVIS HUNTER: I kind of developed my confidence at a young age. I started playing football when I was 4. I had older cousins, so they used to bully me. I was the youngest out there playing football with them, so I had to get that confidence of I'm not going to let you all bully me and push me around.
That's just how I go about life. I'm not going to let anybody push me around and tell me what I can't do. I'm just going to go out and show them.
Q. James, you mentioned something last night that Travis asked some really good questions that showed his football curiosity. Can you give us some details on the kind of things that -- those conversations?
JAMES GLADSTONE: The details around them, I don't know top of mind, but I do know the sensation that you get when you experience somebody who has a growth mindset and you see it unfold in front of you.
The way in which Travis was going about that conversation was certainly something that sparked a little bit of an alarm that was, oh, he's somebody who wants to learn. He's interested in getting more information and knowing that he doesn't have every answer.
That's something that we talked about a little bit more today. The more experience that you get, the harder it becomes to remain curious. So keeping that curiosity at the surface of your mind so that that's not something you ever lose, knowing that there's always means of improving.
Q. James, are you guys trying not to put a number from a snap standpoint, or do you guys have a number in mind that he could handle?
JAMES GLADSTONE: I haven't scoped out a number specifically. We're going to get through this initial onboarding window here throughout the off-season program and see where we end up by the end of that before ever coming to some concrete count there.
Q. Travis, it sounds like, or it seems like from the outside looking in, you're such a gifted athlete, that things have come so easy for you. Do you expect that to be the case at the NFL level? And if not, how do you balance all the successes with some ups and downs and adversity that could hit?
TRAVIS HUNTER: I don't think anything comes easy to me. I got to work for it. I had to work to play both sides of the ball, even being with Coach Prime.
You all just happened to see the perfect end, but I did a lot of work to get to where I'm at. So I'm going to continue to put in the work, continue to grind, and I'm going to just continue to do what I do.
Q. Are you getting married next month?
TRAVIS HUNTER: Yes.
Q. What's this -- what's all of that like compared to all of this that's going on right now?
TRAVIS HUNTER: I kind of just let my fiancee handle that, and I just go to work.
(Laughter).
Q. James, you mentioned last night just the energy Travis brings to any space that he's in. Is that something you're already sensing kind of inside the facility, inside the fan base, community, et cetera?
JAMES GLADSTONE: You know what, I don't think it takes much to see that Travis has gravitational pull. He's got a smile that will light up a room.
(Laughter).
There it is. Let it shine. It is certainly something that most everybody that I've come in contact with who's experienced a session with Travis says very similar things.
Q. For Liam and James, if you both care to address this. Both of you have come from the NFC, so you probably don't pay as much attention to the AFC teams when you're working the NFC. The AFC South has not been regarded as a very tough division in recent years. How much do you think the investments all four teams have made in quarterbacks might change that trajectory in the next two, three, five years?
LIAM COEN: Yeah, it definitely could. You could see there's been a tangible investment in that position in this division. Whether that leads to a little bit more of the known passing situations, getting the ball in the air a little bit more, but for us, it's more, okay, how do we continue to be explosive on the offensive side of the ball for us and then also get people that can take the ball away from the other team on defense?
In this league you have to get takeaways. To affect the quarterbacks that are in this league now, you have to be able to rush them, and you have to be able to get your hands on the football. So we're excited about that opportunity.
Q. Real quick Travis, did you play any other sports in high school beyond football? And could you give us your wedding date?
(Laughter).
TRAVIS HUNTER: My wedding is private.
But I did play basketball. When I first moved to Georgia, I played basketball my eighth grade through high school.
JOHN DEVER: Let's put the wrap on the Q&A there. Before we adjourn, I would like to acknowledge and thank Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan for being here to help us welcome Travis and his family and friends to Duval.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports