NCAA Football: 25 Heisman Trophy finalists who should have won in hindsight
By John Scimeca
Regardless of how you feel about Notre Dame, it’s undeniable that two of the most dominant stories from the 2012 college football season revolved around the Fighting Irish’s undefeated regular season (and subsequent demolition at the hands of Alabama in the national title game) and the online girlfriend hoax of the team’s star linebacker, Manti Te’o.
Admittedly, Te’o’s situation, the story about the tragic car accident and later leukemia treatments of his girlfriend and the accusations later that a male acquaintance of Te’o was behind the fake online persona all make for a stranger-than-strange sequence of events.
What’s lost in the memory of Te’o and the revelation that Lennay Kekua was not a real person is his strong Heisman Trophy candidacy in 2012.
Te’o won a slew of awards during his senior season with the Fighting Irish, winning the Bednarik Award, the Maxwell Award, the Butkus Award, the Nagurski Award and the Walter Camp Award.
Notre Dame’s defense was second in the country in scoring defense, surrendering only 10.3 points per game and Te’o recorded 113 tackles for the season. Te’o led his team with seven interceptions, which was the most by any NCAA linebacker in the previous 11 seasons. He finished his career as one of only two Notre Dame players to have 100+ tackles in three seasons.
Te’o, as the best player on one of the best defenses in the country, finished second in Heisman voting to Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel. The freshman gunslinger passed for 3,706 yards and rushed for 1,410 yards, impressive numbers. At the time, Manziel was leading a 10-2 Aggies squad that tore up the SEC in its first season as a member.
While Manziel wowed voters in 2012 with his scrambling and elusiveness in the pocket, the argument for Te’o lies in the inherent value of a middle linebacker for a defense. It’s difficult to directly compare two standout players on either side of the ball, but the last few decades have all favored quarterbacks and running backs.