No he's an idiot. He makes up a term "intellectual dishonesty" (no such thing intellectual honesty however is a thing) and then does mental gymnastics to justify the fact that he was going to vote for a QB (any QB on the Heisman carousel) rather than Te'o no matter what.
He'd be making the exact same argument for (in order) Matt Barkley, Geno Smith, Collin Klein or whichever other QB happened to end the year with the hot hand. The man talks about "intellectual dishonesty" when he retrofits his own logic to justify his own biases.
As for Te'o it's very very easy to argue how valuable Te'o is. Not only did Te'o put away two games with interceptions but made plays in 2 other games to secure ND's lead (solo stop on Heisman candidate Stepfan Taylor on a 6-inch-and-goal on 3rd down in overtime and disrupting a TD from Heisman candidate Marquis Lee after he had beat his own man in the endzone in USC's last drive).
By the numbers Te'o had a immediate impact in winning or putting away 4 games. Overall Te'o has created 11 of 23 turnovers for an Irish defense that is mostly responsible for every win this season. Looking at individual turnovers Te'o has 9 which is tied for most in the nation this year (including PASS defense- 7 interception and RUN defense- 2 fumble recoveries). The guy not only anchors and directs a defense that carried Offense and Special Teams all year for an undefeated team but is personally all over the field in all aspect of the game making plays which can be directly attributable simply by looking at his turnover numbers and team scoring and yardage numbers.
Lots of guys put up big numbers against bad teams and in losses but in terms of tackles against top 25 teams Te'o is in the top 5 in the nation. That's in a year when his tackling numbers are down 30-40 percent and this is something Pat can't even deny: because his contribution to the defense in other areas is so dominating that he's facing 3-and-outs offenses game in and game out. In truth his down numbers speak to the fact that Te'o is taking away aspects of the game from other teams. They don't throw near him and they run away from him. It's actually a credit to him that they do that but guys like Forde look at the big numbers and something that actually points to Te'o one of the most impactful defensive players ever turns into something that is a negative on the score sheet.
Pat talks about "intellectual dishonesty" but then tries to say that Te'o's fewer tackles are an indication that he's being carried by a dominating Line... I guess that would be intellectually honest if it wasn't the fact that Te'o is leading the team in tackles and the next guy has more than 40 tackles fewer than Te'o and is a safety. It's not the line taking tackles/covering for Te'o it's Te'o's effort leading the defensive is destroying the offenses of opposing teams. So much for intellectual honesty
Throughout the season Te'o matched up with guys on Heisman watch or mentioned as candidates at some point of the season and delivered every game: USC's Lee, Michigan's Robinson, MSU's Bell, Oklahoma's Jones, Stanford's Taylor. In fact he busted the legitimate Heisman chances of each of those guys after each game: disrupted 4 Robinson passes. Held Bell to 77 yards. Kept Taylor out of the end zone. Delivered Jones the only game this season without a TD pass/negative TD-INT. Held Lee to 75 yards, 5 receptions and no TD. For guys like Jones and Lee a BIG game versus Te'o would have literally meant they go to NY and maybe pick up the award. Te'o busted 5 Heisman brackets through his play in big games.
It's laughable to be conflicted whether Te'o is more valuable to his team when ND is honestly a team that would have been 7-5 or 8-4 without Te'o. If you want to try to talk about Manziel's contribution after 1 good game, 2 blown competitive games and beating up on weaker opposition the rest of the year... then to be intellectually honest you'd have to talk about the kid from OSU, the kid who busted Oklahoma's BCS bracket or any of a dozen other kids who were major contributors on lesser teams instead of the kid who just as much if not more to carry his team to the BCS title game.
