Notre Dame LB Manti Te’o second in Heisman balloting
From Notre Dame Athletics
Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o took home most every possible piece of hardware except the Heisman this week.
- Manti Te’o lines up against USC last season. From Notre Dame Athletics.
Te’o finished second behind Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel in the Heisman announcement made Saturday in New York City. Notre Dame Athletics provided this audio of his press conference in New York after the announcement:
Te’o is the third defense-only player to finish in the top two of the Heisman Trophy balloting and the first since Pittsburgh defensive end Hugh Green in 1980. Iowa defensive tackle Alex Karras was the runner-up in 1957.
Including Notre Dame’s seven previous winners, Te’o (Laie, Hawai’i/Punahou H.S.) is the 17th Irish player to finish in the top three (11th in the top two). It’s the highest a Notre Dame player has finished since 1990 when flanker Raghib Ismail was runner-up to BYU quarterback Ty Detmer.
Te’o was Notre Dame’s first Heisman Trophy finalist since quarterback Brady Quinn in 2006. Quinn finished third in that year’s balloting.
Here’s a highlight video from Notre Dame Athletics:
Kansas State signal caller Collin Klein finished a distant third. Te’o finished with 321 first-place votes and 1,706 points – the most ever by a defensive player in college football history.
Te’o has captured the Nagurski Trophy, Butkus Award, Lombardi Award, Bednarik Award, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year. He is the first player in college football history to sweep the aforementioned six awards. In fact, no other player in college football history has ever captured more than five major awards in one season.
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