Deon Figures couldn't sleep the night before Colorado faced Washington. He knew any shot the Buffaloes had of making a title run in 1990 hinged on that contest, as the program had started the season 2-1-1. He knew it would be a dreary day in Boulder, and he knew the Huskies were coming off a rout of a top-five USC team.
 
The adrenaline was simply too much to ignore — and it turned out that Figures and Colorado would need every bit of it. The third-year player intercepted two Mark Brunell passes, including a fourth-down pick in the end zone to seal the win and spark the Buffs toward a magical season.
 
"I'm like, OK, I'm coming off a redshirt year, they're going to test me," Figures said. "And so, I just felt they were going to run that fade route, and I was on it. I turned around and looked up and there it was."
 
Fittingly, it was Figures who clinched the national title as well, intercepting future first-round pick Rick Mirer and running out the clock in a 10-9 win over Notre Dame that earned Colorado the AP national title.
 
Those highlights and so many other great plays across Figures' career have landed him in the College Football Hall of Fame, making him the Buffs' 10th player to enter the Hall and the fourth player who was coached by Bill McCartney, a 2013 CHOF inductee.
 
"He was a heck of a player and easy to coach. Fun to be around," said Mike Hankwitz, Colorado's defensive coordinator at the time. "His first year as a full-time starter in 1990 we were more zone. I had the secondary, and he was good at that. But then we had Greg Brown come in to coach the secondary. Greg had been in the NFL, and he saw the kids we had, and he goes: 'You know, we could play a lot of press-man and give people problems.'"
 
The Buffs won two Big Eight titles (1989-90) during Figures' career, and they were a tie away in both the 1991 and '92 seasons from potentially doubling that total. Colorado posted four top-20 AP finishes from 1988-92, including two top-five finishes.
 
Figures missed the 1989 season, and Colorado lost to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Figures often quipped with his teammates that they would have beaten the Irish had he suited up.
 
"(Linebacker and 2010 CHOF inductee) Alfred Williams had promised me, 'If I have to put that team on my back, we're going to get back to the Orange Bowl so you can play.' I said cool, I'm going to hold you to it," Figures said. "I held him to it, and he was the first person to run up to me when we clinched the Orange Bowl. He said, 'I told you, I will get you back.' I said OK, so now it's time for me to hold up my part of the deal, which was either winning it or preserving the win one way or the other. I was going to be a significant factor in winning that Orange Bowl.
 
"And I said, We're going to win it this time because I'm here. And everybody took that as a joke, but I was serious."
 
Figures stuffed the stat sheet and the trophy shelf during his final campaign of 1992, picking off six passes, breaking up eight more, and, according to the school, allowing just 12 completions across 404 snaps while in man coverage. He won the Jim Thorpe Award, in addition to Big Eight defensive player of the year honors.
 
He left Colorado as No. 2 on the school's all-time pass deflections list, with 27. He picked off 12 career passes in regular-season games.
 
"When we saw him in practice, we realized this is what we hoped for," Hankwitz said. "Because we were trying to get more speed. He was tall at that time, 6-foot was pretty good for a corner at that time, and his speed and athleticism, that set the tone."
 
The Steelers went on to draft Figures 23rd overall in 1993, and he spent the first four seasons of his career in Pittsburgh — playing in Super Bowl XXX — before finishing with the Jaguars in 1997 and '98.
 
"I played with Mark Brunell in Jacksonville, and I tried to get him to sign that [interception] picture," Figures said of their college meeting, laughing. "And he wouldn't sign it for me."
 
DEON FIGURES: UP CLOSE
 

• Named a consensus First Team All-American and claimed the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's best defensive back in 1992.
• Concluded his career with 176 tackles, five tackles for loss, 13 interceptions, 27 pass breakups (second-most all-time at CU by career's end), one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and one blocked kick.
• Helped the Buffs win the national title in 1990 and three Big Eight Championships, earning All-Big Eight honors three times.
• Played for College Football Hall of Fame coach Bill McCartney.
• Becomes the tenth Colorado player to enter the College Football Hall of Fame.