SOUTH BEND, Ind. » Well aware that balloting for the 78th Heisman Memorial Trophy begins today, Notre Dame students made sure to get their campaign in front of the NBC-TV cameras Saturday.

"Manti for Heisman" and "Mantiesman" were two of the more popular signs in the Notre Dame Stadium crowd during Saturday’s

38-0 blitzing of Wake Forest.

"Hey, that ("Mantiesman") one is pretty cool," said the candidate himself, Fighting Irish linebacker Manti Te’o.

That is about as close to one of those "… and I endorse this message" acknowledgements as we are likely to get from the Laie-bred candidate, until Notre Dame’s regular season concludes with USC this Saturday.

Because ever since the Heisman talk began in earnest more than a month ago, Te’o has made it clear that winning a national championship is his primary target.

"I think when my name is being tossed around as a national champion, that’s what I’m looking for," Te’o said. "You ask any Heisman winner that wasn’t a national champion what they would rather be and, I think, they would rather be the latter, a national champion.

"And, that’s what I want," Te’o said, "I’d rather be holding a crystal ball than a bronze statue. That’s just me."

AFTER SATURDAY’S late round of upsets vaulted 11-0 Notre Dame to No. 1 in the polls and a likely spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game if the Fighting Irish beat USC, he might yet get a shot at both.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said at Sunday’s press conference he thinks Te’o "should win the Heisman Trophy provided we continue to win."

Never mind that only one winner in 77 previous years, Michigan defensive back Charles Woodson (1997), was primarily a defensive player. If any defender can get close enough to have a chance, this is the year and Te’o is that player. Already he would seem to be assured of at least a finalist spot barring a blowout at USC.

Te’o is the spiritual and performance leader of the Irish, whose top-ranked defense has made Notre Dame the nation’s only unbeaten bowl-eligible team. And when that team is Notre Dame and it is having a wake-up-the-echoes type of a season, the spotlight is magnified.

"The power and prestige of Notre Dame will help offset the fact that he plays on the wrong side of the ball," said Mike Bianchi, a Heisman voter from the Orlando Sentinel.

MEANWHILE, among the quarterbacks and running backs who usually dominate the Heisman voting, nobody at this late date is a runaway favorite. Redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M just popped up on the radar screen recently, and the presumptive leader is quarterback Collin Klein of Kansas State, which suffered its first loss Saturday.

"I’d say (Te’o) has a slight chance of actually winning, especially with Collin Klein’s performance (Saturday)," said Matt Fortuna of ESPN.com’s "Heisman Watch."

Michael Lev, a Heisman voter from the Orange Country Register, said, "(Te’o) won’t win because he’s a defensive player, which is wrong on a lot of levels. But there are no clear-cut options out there at this point beyond Johnny Manziel, who only entered the picture in the last two weeks. So I say Te’o, like the Honey Badger last year, makes the final five."

Kelly said, "I think he should win the Heisman. But he’s not really focused on that. The only thing that we talk about is that he’s gonna be with me after the USC game quite a bit because we have a lot of banquets and award ceremonies to be at. So, the only thing I talked to him about is that we have the hope that we will be in New York together in a couple of weeks."

The Heisman announcement is Dec. 8, in New York, where we will find out if it is possible to be a "Mantiesman."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.