• VIDEO: Te’o reflects on his combine performance
Notre Dame All-America linebacker Manti Te’o admitted that Monday was a "long, long, long day."
Te’o turned in a disappointing 4.82-second official time in the much-watched main event — the 40-yard dash — at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Te’o’s time placed him 20th among 26 linebackers and even had Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who was watching from the stands, shaking his head. The Super Bowl champion Ravens are one of the teams linked to having interest in Te’o with the retirement of Ray Lewis.
But for Te’o, there will be another chance to impress the NFL scouts.
When asked by Rich Eisen of the NFL Network to rate his performance, Te’o said: "I did OK. I can obviously do better. Do a lot better. And that’s what Pro Days are for."
Notre Dame will hold its Pro Day on March 26 in South Bend, Ind., where Te’o will perform similar drills with teammates in a more comfortable setting.
Te’o told the NFL Network, "At Pro Day, I want to run my 40. I want to get after it. I’ll be with my teammates."
But until then, Te’o will have to live with the mounting questions regarding his ability and draft value following his subpar performances at the combine and in the national championship game against Alabama.
ESPN.com said NFL scouts were expecting Te’o to run a sub-4.75.
Te’o, a Laie native, was measured at 6-11⁄4 inches and weighed 241 pounds at the combine, and the leaner profile from his listed 255 pounds at Notre Dame this past season was expected to help his 40-yard-dash time. Te’o spent much of the past month at the IMG Academy in Florida training for the combine.
At last year’s combine, the average among inside linebackers was 4.77, and the top inside linebacker taken in the draft, Luke Kuechly, ran a 4.58. He was selected ninth overall by Carolina.
NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock suggested that Te’o could nail down a place in the first round of the April draft with a 4.70 or better.
But on Monday, Te’o ran an unofficial 4.81 on his first try and a 4.80 later.
"I was running near 4.6, 4.5. Today was just a long, long, long day," said Te’o, when asked by Mayock what he was running during training and what he thought happened Monday.
"I’m just gonna go and keep training and (when) my Pro Day comes, I’m running those numbers."
The Heisman Trophy runner-up, however, looked every bit like a top prospect during linebacker drills.
"I did best in my (positional) drills," he told the network. "It’s football. It’s getting around corners, changing directions. That’s where I did the best. But the thing is, I can do a lot better, and that’s what’s gonna happen."
Te’o said he spoke with about 20 teams at the combine, which he described as "a very exhausting process." Some of the teams he mentioned — Baltimore, Cincinnati and Denver — have first-round draft picks at No. 20 and later.
He said he felt at home with teams during film and chalkboard sessions.
"That’s where I’m in my comfort zone," he said, "and I think that’s where I made the most strides. On the board, in film, not only telling them what I’m doing, what the safety is doing, why this guy has to do this thing.
"For them to see that I not only know what I’m doing but what the other 10 guys are doing, that was a big plus for me."
As far as the other measurables at the combine, Te’o did not take part in the bench press, reportedly due to a right shoulder problem. But his standing vertical of 33 inches was respectable and comparable with the draft’s other top inside linebackers, Alec Ogletree of Georgia and Kevin Minter of LSU.
Te’o’s times in the 3-cone drill (7.13) and 20-yard shuttle (4.27) were better than Ogletree’s (7.16 and 4.39). Minter did not participate in those drills.
His 113 inches in the broad jump (9 feet, 5 inches) was among the lowest, with only Oklahoma’s Tom Wort lower at 111 inches.