Te'o wins two honors, named Heisman finalist as awards tour begins

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CTL on Te'o's Heisman chances

The Chicago Tribune Live panel discusses whether Manti Te'o can beat out Johnny Manziel and Collin Klein for the Heisman Trophy - 12/3

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CTL breaks down ND-Bama

Chicago Tribune Live discusses next month's BCS Championship between Alabama and Notre Dame - 12/3

JJ STANKEVITZ


Manti Te'o can finally add New York to his travel itinerary.

Notre Dame's senior linebacker will extend his awards tour through Saturday, when he'll attend the Heisman Trophy presentation ceremony in Times Square. Te'o will be joined by Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein.

Most figure Manziel will win the honor, which a defensive player hasn't won since 1997. But having a defensive player who didn't have an impact on be named a finalist for the award is extremely rare -- Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh finished fourth in 2009 -- and Te'o will finish no lower than third in this year's balloting.

Te'o is Notre Dame's first Heisman Trophy finalist since Brady Quinn, who finished third in 2006 and fourth in 2005. Reggie Brooks finished fifth in 1992, Rocket Ismail was second in 1990 and Tony Rice was fourth in 1989, among recent Irish finalists. Tim Brown was the last Notre Dame player to win the Heisman, with that honor coming in 1987. The school's other winners are John Huarte (1964), Paul Hornung (1956), John Lattner (1953), Leon Hart (1949), John Lujack (1947) and Angelo Bertelli (1943).

While Te'o will find out his Heisman fate Saturday night, the linebacker took home two prestigious honors Monday, winning the Butkus Award (nation's best linebacker) and Nagurski Trophy (top defensive player).

"It's definitely a great accomplishment for me," Te'o said of winning the Nagurski Trophy. "I've ways wanted to be the best. For this to happen helps me to know I'm heading in the right direction. The formula is the same: Hard work leads to success as long as I keep doing it."

All season, though, Te'o hasn't been concerned with personal awards, at least compared to his goal of reaching a national championship that certainly seemed lofty three months ago. But with success comes accolades, especially for a player identified by most as the heart and soul of Notre Dame's resurgence.

Te'o's voyage on the awards circuit took him to Charlotte on Monday, and he'll be in Houston and New York later in the week as well. That means Te'o won't be with his teammates when they begin practicing Friday for the BCS Championship.

"I said listen, this week you gotta write it off. It's not going to be a football week for you," coach Brian Kelly said. "When you have an undefeated football team and a great player, awards generally follow you and this week he's going to do the best he can to work out in the hotels and focus on these postseason awards."

Kelly added Te'o is "burnt out" by the attention of the awards circuit that'll zip him across the country over the next week. His biggest concern, though, has been conditioning and staying in shape, as he relayed last week.

"I asked coach Kelly to make sure that there's a gym in whatever place we stay so when I come back I'm not D-lineman," Te'o said. "That's definitely something that I'll do myself to make sure I stay in shape."

The Butkus Award is also given to a high school player, and Irish commit Jaylon Smith (Ft. Wayne, Ind.) garnered the honor.

Smith, rated as the nation's top linebacker and third-best prep player by Rivals.com, is the jewel of Notre Dame's 2013 recruiting class. And not to lop pressure on Smith, but the last high school recipient of the Butkus Award was Te'o.

In other awards news, Braxston Cave was named a finalist for the Rimington Award (nation's top center) and Kelly was named a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award (nation's top coach).