With one week of voting until the finalists for the Heisman Trophy are announced, several predictions have Notre Dame senior linebacker Manti Te’o running second to Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel for the award.
A USA Today survey of 37 Heisman voters lists Manziel with 90 points to Te’o’s 74. Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein is third with 32, while Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller is fourth at 17.
Meanwhile, Heismanpundit.com said today that it is declaring Manziel the winner. “The race is over and Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel is going to win,” heismanpundit.com said. It lists Te’o second, followed by Klein, Miller and USC’s Marqise Lee.
Te’o, a 2009 Punahou School graduate from Laie, grabbed his seventh interception in Saturday’s victory over USC as the Irish finished 12-0. Manziel passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more in Texas A&M’s victory over Missouri.
Heismanpundit.com said it has “picked five of the top six finishers in the final vote in 2008 while correctly tabbing the top four in both 2009 and 2010 and, most impressively, the top seven in 2011.”
The finalists are scheduled to be announced Dec 3, with the winner revealed Dec. 8 in New York.
No freshman has ever won the Heisman and the only primary defensive player to win the award was Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson in 1997.
Mariota nabs Pac-12 honor
Oregon quarterback and Saint Louis School alum Marcus Mariota was named the Pac-12 Conference’s Offensive Freshman of the Year as well as first-team all-conference quarterback on Monday.
Mariota, a redshirt freshman who took home the school’s co-most outstanding player award, led the Ducks to an 11-1 season and a No. 5 ranking in the BCS standings.
