In the most impressive performance, top junior prospect Manti Te'o announced
his presence with authority and began justifying the hype around him.
Although just beginning his junior year of high school, Te'o has already
received verbal offers from Stanford, USC, Cal, UCLA, Notre Dame, Tennessee,
Colorado, Texas A&M, BYU, Utah, Boise State, and UNLV. In the season's
first game, his Punahou team won 56-18 behind a dominating performance by Te'o.
On offense, he scored touchdowns on three of his four touches, including a
99-yard touchdown run. His other touchdowns came on a five-yard run in the
opening drive and a 22-yard catch and run off a pass in the flat. On
defense, he contributed a 20-yard sack and wreaked havoc on the opposing
offense, leading their quarterback to say, "I expected to see that from their
linebackers, flying all over. Very disciplined. Te'o is a monster
out there."
The season also kicked off in Utah. BYU commit Austin Holt, who has
signaled open consideration of Stanford, Florida, and UCLA in addition to BYU,
plays for Bingham, the top team in the state. Bingham showed why they're
considered #1 in Utah this season, handily beating state powerhouse Skyline,
34-7. Bingham led 21-0 after the first quarter, pulled their starters in
the second quarter, and reportedly dominated the line of scrimmage throughout.
Defensively, Bingham was four minutes away from becoming the first team in 251
games, or 21 years, to shut out Skyline's offense.
In other Utah action, Alta beat Spanish Fork 44-7 even with Utah's 2006 Mr.
Football Sausan Shakerin sitting out with a knee injury. Shakerin is
expected to make his season debut next week against Holt's Bingham team in a
huge early season rematch of last season's state championship.
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