Prized recruit won't be playing for BYU

Published: Sunday, Jan. 25 2009 12:05 a.m. MST

Summary

Five-star recruit Manti Te'o won't be signing a national letter-of-intent with BYU.

The top-rated high school linebacker in the country said Saturday that he has narrowed down his college choices to three — USC, UCLA and Notre Dame. He eliminated BYU and Stanford from his list.

"I love BYU and I have three cousins there, and I really thought I'd want to play there and be with them," Te'o told totalbluesports.com. "But when it came down to it, I just thought I could make a bigger impact and be a bigger influence elsewhere. I think at a school like USC or UCLA, I could really represent the Mormon church well."

Te'o contacted Cougar coach Bronco Mendenhall on Saturday to inform him of his decision.

"I have a lot of respect for Bronco Mendenhall and for BYU," Te'o told the Web site. "It just didn't work out and it was a very tough decision for me to drop BYU because of my family there, but I feel the other schools just offer more for me right now."

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Anonymous

now you kewgs should be even more scared, if utah was recruiting him, he would have easily come to utah due to a real defense that dominates everyone easily. This was your one chance to have a player worth talking about on possibly the worst defense More..

12:50 a.m. Jan. 25, 2009
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No Surprise

Te'o isn't BYU's first 5-star snub, and he won't be the last. Perhaps one day, a big recruit might sign with the Y, but I never hold my breath with them. The allure of the siren's song is too strong at the big programs. It takes a special young More..

3:01 a.m. Jan. 25, 2009
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Anonymous

Anonymous...are you serious? You trying to say that Utah didn't try and recruit Teo? If they didn't they would be stupid. Sorry, but Utah lost on this one too, just a lot earlier than BYU.

5:48 a.m. Jan. 25, 2009
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