By Christopher Kamrani
| The Salt Lake Tribune
Bountiful High assistant football coach Alema
Te’o was still marveling at the moment from his Southern California
hotel room, one night before undefeated and top-ranked Notre Dame was to
wrap up its unforgettable season against rival USC at the Los Angeles
Coliseum.
Alema’s great-nephew, Notre Dame star
linebacker Manti Te’o, had just gotten off a plane after flying in from
South Bend, Ind., with the rest of the team, but he still found time to
gather with family members who had poured into L.A. for the big game.
"He could have said, ‘I’m tired, I need to go
to my room,’ but he didn’t," Alema Te’o said of Manti. "He stayed the
whole time with family members, talked to them about working hard and
doing what’s right."
If there is a face behind the resurgence of the
most storied college football program in the country, it’s Te’o, the
Herculean heart of the Fighting Irish defense who also showcases a
million-dollar smile and a big-hearted attitude that has helped Notre
Dame reach the BCS National Championship game against No. 2 Alabama on
Jan. 7.
Teo’s role in helping restore Notre Dame to
prominence also has resulted in another pinnacle. He will be in New York
on Saturday as a Heisman Trophy finalist, along with Texas A&M
quarterback Johnny Manziel and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein.
This is mostly foreign territory for a
linebacker — Charles Woodson is the only defensive player to ever win
the Heisman, and he won it largely as a return specialist. But it is a
potentially history-making moment for the Pacific Islander community in
Utah, the rest of the U.S. and abroad. No college football player of
Polynesian descent has ever won a Heisman, or even been invited to the
award ceremony.
"No doubt if he wins it was destiny," said
Alema Te’o, who created the popular All-Poly Football Camp 14 years ago.
"If Manti wins it, I can honestly believe that this will be the first
step in elevating the effort level for the next generation [of
Polynesian players] to come up. Everybody and their dog is going to want
to be like Manti. They already do."
Utah defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake noted
that the Sitakes and the Te’os are old family friends and he and Manti
Te’o even hail from the same hometown in Hawaii. It was Sitake who drew
the job of recruiting Te’o to Utah four years ago, but Utah’s defensive
coordinator said he is proud of the way Te’o carved out a niche for
himself in South Bend.
"He represents himself and Notre Dame the right
way," Sitake said. "He’s always giving credit to his roots and his
family and his faith, and when you have a guy like that people are going
to flock to him whether they’re Polynesian or not. There’s T-shirts out
here in Utah that say ‘Manti for Heisman.’ He’s a dynamic young man."
Saia Saltiban, who will be a senior outside
linebacker at Bingham next season, said Te’o’s collegiate career is
epitomized by his ability to think for himself and make the most of his
decision to go to Notre Dame.
"I just think he’s a different player because
he chose his own path. As a Polynesian, you’re supposed to stay at a
West Coast school, but he went to an [eastern]," Saltiban said. "I’d
rather have him win the Heisman Trophy because I think it’d be a bigger
attribute for the Polynesian football community. He’s going to have a
great career in the NFL, and he’s going to be a legend in college
football history."
Alema Te’o said his nephew has an innate
ability to simplify things when the circumstances may seem gargantuan to
others. That night before the Fighting Irish defeated the Trojans 22-13 to punch their ticket to the BCS
title game, Manti Te’o talked to every last one of his cousins who took
different treks to Southern California to visit their hero.
"He’s already got his next group of cousins wearing his jersey and walking and talking just like him," Alema Te’o said.
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