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Notre Dame's Manti Te'o is a Heisman finalist and by many accounts a very deserving one. Looking at things merely through a statistical lens would be myopic; Te'o's Notre Dame teammates and he combined to play the 3rd fewest player per game of any defense in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Of course a cynic might also point out the caliber of those teammates around him in quantifying that fact, but we digress. Te'o is an excellent, potentially Heisman worthy linebacker (and he'll probably be an even better pro).
Still, curiosity got the best of us, and we decided to see how Ohio State's very own Ryan Shazier, an unsung dominant force on the Buckeyes' late season thriving defense (which failed to allow Michigan past the midfield in the entire second half of their rivalry game), compared against the Fighting Irish's emotional leader and star. The results we leave for you to infer, but who knows: Maybe we'll be comparing then Notre Dame sophomore Jaylon Smith to senior linebacker Heisman candidate Ryan Shazier in but two short seasons.
