Jack Swarbrick thinks Manti Te'o should talk

It has been two days since Deadspin's report about the hoax concerning Manti Te'o's supposed girlfriend Lennay Kekua broke. In that time, just about everybody has shared their opinion or story about what really happened. Everybody except Te'o himself, who, aside from releasing a statement confirming the story, has remained totally silent.

Which is something that Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick thinks needs to change. Although Swarbrick put his and Notre Dame's support behind Te'o in a press conference on Wednesday, Swarbrick said in a podcast released on Friday that he believes Te'o has to address the situation publicly.

"I don't have any specific knowledge as to how and when [Te'o will talk]," Swarbrick said. "But I can't fathom a circumstance where it doesn't. I sort of share everybody's view that it has to happen. And we are certainly encouraging it to happen. We think it's important, and we'd like to see it happen sooner rather than later.

"And so I do think the ball's in [the Te'o family's] court. Again, we are very much encouraging them to…[make] themselves available to explain and take questions. We think that's in everybody's interests. It's our expectation at Notre Dame that they will do that. We were willing to go forward and do that and answer questions from our end and offer our support. We have every expectation he'll do the same."

During his press conference on Wednesday, Swarbrick said he was under the impression that Te'o would speak on Thursday, but that never happened. There were also reports that Te'o had been scheduled for a sitdown with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap, but that it was cancelled.