NEW YORK » The 45-pound bronze Heisman Trophy will not grace Manti Te’o’s increasingly crowded family home in Laie, but there will always be "the quilt."

"It means everything to us," said Brian Te’o, Manti’s father.

While the Heisman, which went to Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel on Saturday night, symbolizes the most outstanding player in the country, "the quilt" has come to represent for the Te’o family the rise and the proud appreciation of their oldest son’s remarkable exploits.

"Out of everything he has earned — and he’s received some just incredible, incredible honors and I’m not trying to downplay anything he has received or didn’t receive — for his parents that quilt means everything," Brian Te’o said.

It was originally the product of a design class he took at Notre Dame; this full-bed-sized collage of the old, used Fighting Irish T-shirts he wore to practice for much of his four-year career.

But it has come to mean so much more in his rise from the North Shore to an exalted place in college football and the nation’s consciousness this year.

"When you look at it you start to tear up because you understand, at one time in his life, that jersey or that shirt was on his body," Brian said. "It is sopping up all the sweat, the blood and tears he had shed to get where he is. So, in that respect it means a lot to us."

It was why Te’o and his parents could leave with smiles Saturday night despite finishing second in his bid to become the first pure defensive player to win the Heisman.

"He gave it his best and that’s all we’ve ever asked of him," Brian said. "He’s had an outstanding year, a great career."

Indeed, Te’o has won six major postseason awards this year, the most in college history, and is still a finalist for one more, the Lott Trophy.

He has won the respect of his teammates, who flooded Twitter with howls that Te’o didn’t win the Heisman.

"That’s my team," Te’o said.

He graduates this month with a degree in graphic design and will become, as he put it, "a domer" alum with a golden NFL future come the 2013 draft.

He has helped take Notre Dame to the Jan. 7 Bowl Championship Series title game in Miami against Alabama.

"My mind is all on the national championship and winning that," Manti said. "This is motivation."

Gov. Neil Abercrombie has saluted him as "an inspiration to all the people of Hawaii, particularly to our youth as they dream and strive for excellence."

But as the ever-resilient Te’o picked himself up from his last Heisman press conference late Saturday night on the ninth floor of a hotel overlooking Times Square, there was something else on the 6-foot-2, 255-pound linebacker’s immediate mind.

"All right!" Te’o shouted. "Let’s eat!"