The move to the SEC won't be felt one way or another for a few years (recruiting, etc). There's a decent case to be made that if A&M had stayed in the Big12, they'd be on the verge of their first conference title in over a decade and a possible national championship game appearance right now if their schedule was similar to last year with KSU and OU being late in the year. They would have gotten KSU and OU at home this year; other big challenge would would have been OSU on the road early in the season.
I've been a Notre Dame football fan since birth and I actually want Manziel to win it. Kid has been absolutely incredible!!! Plus, we are playing for the title, I don't feel like being selfish
It's over. This will be the first time a (redshirt) freshman wins it. Expectations on Manziel for next year will be out of control.
It shouldn't even be close Manziel has easily been the best player in the country. Te'o is a great story but he is no Charles Woodson or Suh. (should have won). I'm not so sure he's even the best defensive player in the country. People are just eating up his story and the fact that he is on Notre Dame.
Yeah he's no Woodson. Woodson in 97: 44 tackles, 8 int Te'o in '12: 103 tackles 7 int wow. One whole fewer interception and only like 59 more tackles than Woodson? Te'o suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuks. Get this out of here. The only reason this scrub is even mentioned is because he plays for Notre Dame. Personally I hope Te'o doesn't win it because he's Samoan. Stupid reason? Yeah but it makes about as much sense as the other reason people who don't want him to win: because he's from Notre Dame. I mean is that even a reason? Look at ALL THE GUYS who've recently gotten undeserved Heisman pushes playing for Notre Dame. There's... that one guy, and the uh... other guy. Hmm is it 1987 already? If you want to talk football, instead of rivalries and bias, first of all Te'o is an inside LB. that's a vastly different position from even outside LB like Jarvis Jones who plays a more glamor position with a lot of rushes and sacks and opportunities for showy impact plays. Te'o crawls the backfield on a defense that rarely even blitzes looking for holes, reading the offense, shoring up coverages, directing the defense and containing anything that has gotten past his teammates. On many assignments like passing routes the average fan isn't going to even know what he did on a given play. But he's back there, anchoring up the defense, playing QB of the defense for a squad that's the best Red Zone scoring defense of the past 8 seasons by the numbers. if you want to see what an inside LB's numbers look like, take a look at Manti versus Ray Lewis: Ray Lewis career stats: 6.9 tackles per game, .18 sacks per game, .136 int per game Manti Te'o career stats: 8.5 tackles per game, .17 sacks per game, .14 int per game WOW. both these guys SUCK. is this Ray Lewis guy even a professional player? he's not doing **** all game. what is he doing just standing around? where are the sacks? where are the big numbers? whoever this Lewis cat is, I hope they're not paying a ONE MEELION DOLLARES So what's Te'o doing then if he's not racking up big stats? He's carrying an average 7-5 team to 12-0 and the Natty. He's being a playmaker. A playmaker? On defense? Yes. Playmaker. Te'o has made 3 interceptions to close out games for Notre Dame: Oklahoma, Michigan and BYU. He made a solo tackle over the top on Stanford's Stepfan Taylor in what would have been the tying TD in overtime on a 1-and-goal. Without all the hyperbole this is a kid who makes his team better: on offense and defense. This is a dude who's carried a turnover-prone redshirt freshman QB and a pair of true freshman DBs by covering for their mistakes the first 8-9 games of the season. Is Te'o the sole reason for ND's season? No of course not, this is FOOTBALL. Even a rusher or passer doesn't do it alone. And without a shanked kick by Pitt we're not even having this discussion. But Te'o is the difference. No Te'o no national championship game. The kid has sealed at least 4 wins with plays ON THE FIELD and his leadership on and off the field has had a huge impact. Golson talks about how Te'o took him aside and encouraged him when Golson's confidence was shaky (during a period Golson was actually being PULLED OFF the field by the coaches for his mistakes) and you can see how a dominant defense has actually allowed Golson and the offense to play through mistakes and develop. On top of that when all else fails, Te'o goes out there and makes a play to put games away. You can talk about those interceptions and goal line stands, but Te'o does stuff every game that goes unnoticed by fans/stats like coming over to bust up a pass to probably the best receiver in the FBS, Stanford's Marquis Lee when Lee shakes his freshman cover man in the end zone at the end of the USC game. If Lee makes that catch it's a different ballgame for USC with 5 minutes left, but no one is going to talk about that play when voting for the Heisman. It's not going into the record sheet. Instead it's how many sacks did Te'o have? 0? Well Jarvis Jones has TWO sacks the Auburn game. Man if anyone is going to win a Heisman on defense it should be Jones! You can't do more than Te'o has done. Before the Michigan St. game when MSU was ranked 10th, Spartan fans were hyping how Le'Veon Bell would run over ND and making it sound like a battle between Bell and Te'o. Bell is a STUD who would go on to run for over 200 yards THREE TIMES in 2012, including 250 yards the game after ND. How'd that turn out? Bell was held to 77 yards with Te'o racking up 12 tackles. 7 solo tackles. a tackle for loss. Oh, and he recovered a Bell fumble and ran that back 8 yards when Michigan ST was knocking on the door in a low scoring game. Against Stanford he shut down their main rusher Taylor in the end zone. Against USC he was making plays on Lee. Against Oklahoma, Michigan and BYU he made interceptions to help win those games. This guy does it, not by gunning for big numbers but by doing his job and then some. Time and again he has been called to challenge the main offensive weapon for the other team whether it's a back like Bell or Taylor or a receiver like Lee. When the threat is a passer like Oklahoma's Landry Jones who puts up over 350 yards per game Te'o responded with a sack, interception, a PD and 2 tackles for loss in the Sooner backfield. You literally can't do more both for the team and as a defensive playmaker than Te'o has done. All the other talk is just ludicrous. I'm not going to talk **** about Johnny Football because the kid has the right name. This dude can BALL. But just keep in mind that before Manziel there was Collin Klein. Before Klein there was Geno Smith. 90% of the people who are going to vote for Manziel are doing so with Manziel as the THIRD CHOICE. If Smith or Klein hadn't screwed up Manziel wouldn't win the Heisman period, no matter what heroics he pulled at the end of the 2012 season. With over 120 teams in the FBS, over 200 active QBs and over 1500 college football games, statistically SOMEONE will put up incredible numbers. That's not taking anything away from Manziel, there's nothing at all conventional about this kid's play but it boils down to either starting at the top and going down the list of offensive playmakers every year until you get to a Heisman winner or looking at a once-in-a-generation defensive talent, playmaker and difference maker who's not only carried a mediocre team to the championship but put an entire decrepit PROGRAM on his back. I'm not going to cry if Manziel wins but the comments about how Te'o is only in the conversation because of ND, that he's overrated or that he's not even the best defensive player on his own team makes me wonder if people even really stop and think about stuff like this or are just programmed in their responses and react by stimulus: big number check, offense check, late in year check. Give that boy a Heisman
Congrats to Manziel.He was a hell of a lot of fun to watch .. From now on they can call him Johnny Heisman
Damn. A great first year in the SEC, a heisman trophy, and major recruits committing to Texas A&M. Sumlin is building a monster.
