Manti Te’o Named to Bednarik Watch List
Earlier on Tuesday Dayne Crist and Michael Floyd were named to the Maxwell Award watch list and now a third Notre Dame player, Manti Te’o, was named to the Bednarik Award watch list heading into his junior season.
The Bednarik Award is given annually to the best defensive player in college football by the Maxwell Football Club, the same organization that hands out the Maxwell Award each year, Te’o is just one of three semi-finalists from a year ago to make this year’s watch list joining Florida State’s Brandon Jenkins and Boston College’s Luke Kuechly.
Last season Te’o emerged as the playmaker everyone thought he would be when he signed with Notre Dame following the 2008 season. The Hawaiian native paced the Irish with 133 tackles – 9.5 of which went for a loss. The 133 tackles Te’o amassed through the season were good enough for 12th in the country. Twenty-one of those tackles came against Stanford when Te’o tried to single handily keep the Irish in the game in the third quarter with a series of big hits and stops before the Cardinal pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Heading into his junior season in 2011, many expect Te’o to take the leap from very good player to elite player now that he will have some familiarity going into his second year in Bob Diaco’s defense. Last season Te’o earned 2nd team All-American honors from Sports Illustrated and was named a semi-finalist for the Butkus Award as one of the nation’s top linebackers. Accolades like those should continue to pour in for Notre Dame’s most exciting linebacker in years.
The Bednarik Award was introduced in 1995 and in that time no Notre Dame player has won the award.
Notre Dame will face 9 players on the Bednarik watch list from 7 opponents in 2011:
- Boston College – Donnie Fletcher (CB), Luke Kuechly (LB)
- Stanford – Delano Howell (S), Shayne Skov (LB)
- Pittsburgh – Brandon Lindsey (DE)
- Michigan – Mike Martin (DT)
- USC – TJ McDonald (S)
- Maryland – Kenny Tate (S)
- Michigan State – Jezel Worthy (DT)
A total of 65 players are on this year’s watch list for the Bednarik Award which can be viewed on the Maxwell Football Club’s website
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Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
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