Manti Te’o and the Notre Dame defense couldn’t stop Alabama’s offense in the BCS title game. (John Bazemore/AP)

By Zac Ellis

Those who watched Alabama’s drubbing of Notre Dame in January’s BCS title game saw the Crimson Tide overwhelm the Irish’s vaunted defense. While Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly can’t argue with that assessment, he doesn’t think the loss exposed one of the team’s defensive stars.

Kelly defended the play of star linebacker Manti Te’o, who was one of the country’s top defensive players and a Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2012. Kelly was asked in an NFL Network interview whether Te’o was exposed against Alabama, to which he simply replied, “No.”

Instead, Kelly contended that his team did not play up to its potential against a hungry Crimson Tide team.

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No matter how fast you go, Manti, you can’t run away from the fake girlfriend hoax. (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

For a fake dead girlfriend, Lennay Kekua can’t seem to stay out of the headlines. Just as one of the weirdest stories in college football history was finally fading, Manti Te’o's fake-ex resurfaced in a surprising place: ESPN’s Bracket Challenge. Following Louisville’s victory over Michigan in Monday night’s NCAA championship game, the tournament bracket entitled “Lennay Kekua’s entry” claimed first place, with the owner taking home a $10,000 Best Buy gift card. Apparently Kekua had the guts to pick Florida Gulf Coast over Georgetown. Good for her.

Brian Kelly, seen here crooning Demi Lovato songs softly to himself. (AP)

So Brian Kelly has a Spotify playlist that includes a track containing references to a girlfriend dying an imaginary death. Here’s why we support this: The fact that “50 Ways to Say Goodbye” made it onto this list suggests that Kelly made it himself and it’s not some carefully vetted p.r. offering. (Either that or, as suspected during Jack Swarbrick’s first Lennay Kekua hoax press conference, Notre Dame’s p.r. department is staffed entirely by holograms.)

The liking of Train and Pitbull, we’re not sure we can help with.

We have at least three weeks’ worth of Sebastian photos on hand, in case this Miami story keeps dragging on. (AP)

Assorted newsy bits — of varying degrees of importance — you might have missed over the long weekend:

• Didn’t we already do this headline a week ago? ”Imminent” can mean a lot of things! In the cosmic sense, the NCAA’s investigation of Miami has spanned less than a fraction of an eyeblink, but here we are, riding on a human-speed space-time wave, just twiddling our bloggy thumbs until the ‘Canes’ notice of allegations drops. The latest rumblings, per Bruce Feldman, involve a very large book being thrown at ex-Miami and current Louisville assistant Clint Hurtt and other former ‘Canes colleagues. We’ll have more on this when we actually see the notice of allegations, unless we don’t see this notice of allegations, in which case we’ll be right back here next Monday writing a third variation on this same headline.

• And speaking of the NCAA: On the final day of the annual NCAA convention, the latest raft of changes — touted as an effort to streamline NCAA regulations — were unveiled. Your friendly neighborhood Bylaw Blogger takes a look at one proposal, regarding recruiting start dates, that was left out of the bundle.

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Manti Te’o has yet to make any public comments on the Lennay Kekua hoax. (AP)

Monday night, after the release of statements regarding the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax, Notre Dame staged a press conference with athletic director Jack Swarbrick intending to fill in some of the gaps. (Te’o will speak for himself, Swarbrick said, but hasn’t yet as of Thursday morning.) We got some answers, but many came away with even more question marks.

You can read a full transcript of the conference here, but the main thrust of Swarbrick’s remarks and answers was to shore up Notre Dame’s contention that l’affaire Lennay Kekua was a hoax from start to finish, with Te’o a victim the whole way through. Swarbrick emphatically assured his audience that he had gotten “accurate” information from Te’o, but when the questions turned to inconsistencies in the various public statements Te’o had made about Kekua, Swarbrick just as emphatically declined to answer:

Q. There were some reports earlier in the year when this was going on that Manti and Kekua had met and spent time together in Hawaii. Did he explain how those came to be? 

Jack Swarbrick: He did, and, again, I’m going to let Manti tell the story because he deserves that right. What I will tell you, this was exclusively an online relationship.

And the creepiest revelation: Swarbrick said Te’o was tipped off to the scheme when he received a phone call in early December from the girl who’d been playing the part of Kekua, informing him she wasn’t dead, and that at some point, an attempt to “restart the relationship” was made.

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In September, the nation applauded Manti Te’o for playing through pain following the deaths of two loved ones. (AP)

We’re posting at this hour on an offseason Wednesday for a big, strange reason: Manti Te’o's girlfriend, who reportedly died on the same week as his grandmother back in September, setting the stage for a standout performance by Te’o against Michigan State and fueling a surge of goodwill for the Fighting Irish Star — you may remember us saying a prayer for Te’o in this space — did not die in September. In fact, she was never alive in the first place. Go read, if you haven’t. We’ll wait.

Notre Dame released the following statement Wednesday evening: “On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.”

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Quarterback Trent Steelman (8) has played his final game for the Black Knights. (AP)

• Navy 17, Army 13. The Midshipmen take the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and extend their winning streak over the Black Knights, but don’t let this moment pass without a fond farewell to Trent Steelman, who was born to quarterback at Army:

Look, it's Trent Steelman and the Army versus Wave Ryder and the Navy. How is anyone not watching this?

—
Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) December 08, 2012

Steelman finishes his college career without ever having beaten Navy, and with sour memories of his final play as a Black Knight. He also finishes with another record to his name and his legacy burnished, both during and after the game. We’ve written his name in all caps for years, because it just seems to fit. Happy trails, TRENT STEELMAN.

• Assorted trophy happenings. Read Andy Staples’ anecdote of the Manziel family’s adventures in trademarking … Manti Te’o garnered more Heisman points than any other purely defensive player in the history of the award … Te’o added the Lott Trophy to his hardware haul.

• Quote of the day, Heisman edition. From Johnny Manziel’s acceptance speech on Saturday night: “To Grandpa … you inspired me to play football. Grandma, I’m sorry for all the things we broke in the house.”

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Manti Te’o adds the Maxwell, Bednarik and Walter Camp awards to his trophy haul. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

• Manti Manti Manti Manti Manti Manti (repeat). For those of you scoring at home, that’s the Maxwell Award, Bednarik Award and Walter Camp Foundation Player of the Year award all for Manti Te’o to add to his sagging trophy shelf. Also taking home hardware on Thursday night: Johnny Manziel (Davey O’Brien Award), Luke Joeckel (Outland Trophy), Monteé Ball (Doak Walker Award), Marqise Lee (Biletnikoff Award), Johnthan Banks (Jim Thorpe Award), Cairo Santos (Lou Groza Award) and Ryan Allen (Ray Guy Award, again).

• Taylor Swift for ACC Commissioner. Thrust forth yesterday from the ACC Council of Presidents, which is never ever letting any of those meanies from the Big Ten or dummyheads from the Big East in its treehouse again, ever: “We, the undersigned presidents of the Atlantic Coast Conference, wish to express our commitment to preserve and protect the future of our outstanding league. We want to be clear that the speculation about ACC schools in negotiations or considering alternatives to the ACC are totally false. The presidents of the ACC are united in our commitment to a strong and enduring conference. The ACC has long been a leader in intercollegiate athletics, both academically and athletically, and the constitution of our existing and future member schools will maintain the ACC’s position as one of the nation’s premier conferences.”

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Highlight video of the ballyhooed 1992 RU/VT game. And there is NO QUESTION it was made in 1992. youtu.be/UIlIsa2zphg

— RussellAthleticBowl (@RussellAthBowl) December 3, 2012

We would like to politely request at this time that all footage of the 2012 Rutgers Athletic Bowl adhere to these same retro production values. For continuity, you see.

• Assorted trophy happenings. Your 2012 Heisman finalists, who are somehow still not called “Heis-men,” which will apparently never be satisfactorily explained: Johnny Manziel, Manti Te’o and Collin Klein. Klein has also been bestowed with the Johnny Unitas Award, and Te’o with the Nagurski Trophy. In non-Heis-men news, Notre Dame’s Bob Diaco is the 2012 Broyles Award winner, and Matt McGloin takes home the Burlsworth Award.

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