Where will this kid land in the draft and how well will he adapt to the pro game???
Manti Te'o still first-round pick despite rough BCS title game By Daniel Jeremiah Analyst, NFL.com and NFL Network Published: Jan. 8, 2013 at 10:46 a.m. Updated: Jan. 8, 2013 at 10:52 a.m
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Manti Te'o had a rough outing in the BCS Championship Game on Monday night. There is no way to sugarcoat it. After 12 solid outings, Te'o and his Notre Dame defense were annihilated by a bigger, stronger and faster Alabama offense, which sprinted to a 42-14 win. On the game's opening possession, Alabama's offensive line took control of the game and pushed Te'o and his defensive mates right down the field.
Te'o wasn't the only Irish defender to be manhandled, but his reputation coming into the game made his poor play the focus of everyone's attention. He was routinely late to fill gaps. When he was able to engage a 'Bama lineman, he couldn't free himself to make a play. When he was unblocked, he missed several tackles, either by bouncing off or whiffing on the talented Crimson Tide running backs.
The world of Twitter exploded with negative comments about Te'o. Shoot, I personally contributed a handful myself. However, let's not get too carried away with one bad -- OK, horrible -- performance.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Te'o's pro potential, comparing him to former Alabama linebacker DeMeco Ryans. I never put Te'o in the same class as players like Patrick Willis, Jerod Mayo and Jon Beason when they entered the draft.
I don't envision Te'o's stock tumbling quite as dramatically as one might expect after Monday night's poor play. Teams that run a 3-4 defense might be a little concerned about Te'o's inability to use his hands to get off blocks, but that's something that can be taught and improved upon. What this game might prove is that he is best suited to play in a 4-3 scheme, in which opposing offensive guards would be covered up and unable to get a clean run at him.
I'm still certain Te'o will be a first-round draft pick. He will excel during his interviews with individual teams, and his leadership abilities and intelligence will elevate his stock. Everyone has a bad game or two during their career; NFL teams won't overreact to the Monday night massacre.
I think people are overreacting a bit. Terrible game? Absolutely. But there's a lot that goes into this game with the layoff, the fact that he's playing against an incredible offensive line and against a team that's been there plenty before and knew how to handle it - all of these things might have affected his performance, course maybe they didn't. I bet he still goes top 15, maybe top 10 once this all blows over. Lets not forget he was a heisman finalist as a linebacker.
College Football Notre Dame, Te'o say linebacker was victim of hoax By Eye on College Football staff January 16, 2013 5:27 pm ET
The college football world was thrown into a frenzy Wednesday afternoon when Deadspin reported that the girlfriend of Notre Dame star linebacker and Heisman finalist Manti Te'o -- whom he had mourned after her midseason death from leukemia -- did not, in fact, exist and appeared to be an elaborate hoax.
Though Deadspin suggested Te'o could have been complicit in the deception, Notre Dame issued a statement on the report Wednesday defending Te'o as the victim of the hoax. It reads in full:
On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.
Te'o also released a statement late Wednesday. It reads:
"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.
"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.
Guru13 wrote:I think people are overreacting a bit. Terrible game? Absolutely.
"Supposedly" he realized his on line dead girlfriend was a hoax the week of the game. If, and it's a huge if, he truly wasn't involved and got played, there's not doubt in my mind his play in the game was impacted by this story line. However, if he was aware or part of this crap, I hope he goes undrafted.
Highlights of press conference on NFL Network about an hour ago:
Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick addresses Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax By Tom Fornelli | Blogger January 16, 2013 8:56 pm ET
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick held a press conference Wednesday night to address the story of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, who the school claims was the victim of an elaborate hoax.
Earlier on Wednesday Deadspin reported that Lennay Kekua, Manti Te'o's supposed girlfriend who had died during the 2012 season, was not real but in fact made up.
Swarbrick elaborated on a prepared statement the school had released earlier in the day, chronicling the events that led to Manti Te'o and the school learning he had been the victim of a hoax.
"On the morning of December 26, Manti called his coach to inform him that while he was in attendance at ESPN awards show he received a phone call from a phone number he had associated with Lennay Kekua," said Swarbrick. "It was a person whose voice sounded like the same person, who told him she was in fact not dead."
Swarbrick also went on to say that the relationship between Te'o and Kekua was "exclusively an online relationship."
Swarbrick said he arranged a meeting with Te'o for December 27, and said Te'o shared with him the details of the relationship. Notre Dame then hired an outside firm to investigate the case, receiving a final report with the investigation's findings on January 4.
So we are to believe that he was taken in and not a part of this lie? So until the 27th in his world his girlfriend had died. Assuming we were going to totally abuse suspension of disbelief and consider that somehow he never met, but fell in love with his imaginary girl, what kind of person, mind you a devout Mormon, upon learning she is dying wouldn't go and see her? Why wouldn't the school insist after learning of the hoax insist he come clean immediately? Why didn't ND protect Te'o? A simple call to Stanford would have led to this fraud being exosed long before the story blew up into a nice propaganda tool for Te'o and ND. For my cynical money, both are lying. No way does a huge college, in this day and age, not do more due diligence on such a great pr story. Te'o had way too much to lose by admitting he was a part of it, even though his newest story makes him look at best naive and sociopathicly cold. I really think this lie affected the way he played against Bama and should also drop him dramaticly in the draft. Who wants to take a chance on someone that unstable?
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moochman
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Manti Te'o denies being a part of girlfriend hoax in interview By Tom Fornelli | Blogger January 19, 2013 12:01 am ET
"I wasn't faking it. I wasn't part of this."
That's what Manti Te'o told ESPN's Jeremy Schaap on Friday night as the Notre Dame linebacker agreed to do an interview for the first time since a Deadspin report stating that Te'o's deceased girlfriend never existed. The interview was conducted off-camera at the IMG Training Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where Te'o is preparing for the NFL Draft.
Aside from just denying his involvement in the hoax, Te'o said he did not make anything up to help with his Heisman Trophy candidacy.
"When [people] hear the facts, they'll know," Te'o said in the interview. "They'll know that there is no way that I could be part of this."
Te'o admitted that he lied to his father, Brian Te'o, about meeting Lennay Kekua, which led to his father telling the media that the two had met. He also confirmed reports that he tried to speak to Kekua via Skype multiple times, but the only thing he ever saw on the other end of the camera was what he called a "black box."
"I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn't meet," Te'o told Schaap.
"So I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, 'Yeah, he met her before she passed away.' "
The more he talks the more it sounds like there is something pathologicly wrong with Te'o. If he had nothing to be gained, ie Heisman, what possible reason would there be for him not to come clean the minute he supposedly found out he'd been taken in? You know, like any other human being would? You wouldn't carry it out "to keep the team from being distracted" Right. And I suppose you didn't want to disrupt your routine long enough to go visit your dying "love of you life". That's too messed-up. Unless you know the dying person doesn't exist. I hope the unraveling of this lie goes far enough to expose the real frauds here. Those that profited by reporting stories with total disregard to the truth. A few simple phone calls would have nipped this lie in the bud but ND, NBC, espn, etal have gotten way to comfortable in just getting the story out there. maybe this can change the disgraceful laziness, if not duplicity of what used to be trusted media outlets.
I hope some day soon Manti will man up. Stop lying, just tell the truth, in plain words. There are people who somehow feel sorry for king liar Lance Armstrong for telling us that he has repented after years of lying, intimidating, and profiting. Imagine how quickly this could get behind Te-o if he simply just tells the truth.
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moochman
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