Manti Te'o promises better 40 time

11:42 AM ET 03.02 | Manti Te'o spoke about smiling in the face of adversity during Friday's press conference to announce him as the Maxwell Football Club's college player of the year and defensive player of the year. Then, he walked to the back of the Harrah's Hotel & Casino theater, sat down and faced a group of about 20 reporters, cameras and photographers, just a fraction of the reporter crush that peppered him with questions six days ago in Indianapolis at the NFL scouting combine. "For me, I'm glad the combine is done," the former Notre Dame linebacker said, referring to his first group interview session as well as the first meeting with NFL teams, since his "catfishing" situation broke. "I've finished that, and now I'm focused more on specific things like my 40 (yard dash). I don't have to worry about so many other things. "It's definitely difficult, I'm not going to say it's easy. It's hard, but it's definitely something you can work through." The negative? Te'o's two 40s. Te'o said he ran in the 4.6-range during training and expects to improve upon his combine numbers at his pro day on March 26. "The 40 time measures what the 40 time's supposed to measure. I think that's something I'm going to get better at," he said. "The only way from here is up. I'm definitely going to get better at that. "As far as play, flip on the film. That's my play."

USA Today