83
As the postseason awards (three and counting) pile up for Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, a montage of his season has gone viral on YouTube.
The nearly three-minute video, which includes on-the-field highlights and scenes from Hawaii, is built around the Jamaican beat from Harry Belafonte’s song "Day-O (Banana Boat)," which was repopularized in the movie "Beetlejuice."
It was put together in a matter of hours Nov. 30 and had 50,000 views in the first day, said Pat McKillen, a 2010 Notre Dame finance graduate and folk-rock acoustic guitarist who did much of the work.
McKillen had performed for a Notre Dame football function and said he was approached by his former Irish roommate, David Grimes, a strength coach for the team, and David Peloquin, the director of football development, about doing something for Te’o’s Heisman Trophy candidacy.
McKillen said he wanted to keep the song "self-aware, light-hearted and fun."
Notre Dame’s digitial media department, in conjunction with football sports information director Brian Hardin, put it together to coincide with the postseason awards circuit.
"It was neat … interesting," the Te’o family said in a text.
McKillen said, "It’s been pretty amazing to see the support for both the video we put together and for Manti. The momentum and speed at which this video took off is really a tribute to how important Te’o has been to a program that has been emotionally deflated the last few years. I’m not sure that Te’o needs the Heisman Trophy for us to know that he is a great football player and an even better person — but I certainly think he deserves it."
—–
"Work all night on a tackling Dum
Offense come then they wanna go home
Stack, spread formations so much fun
Offense come then they wanna go home
Te, me say Te, me say Te, me say Te, me say Te, me say TE’O
Offense come then they wanna go home … "
