Outlined against a blue-white October sky, Charlie Weis cast a big shadow on Punahou School's historic Alexander Field yesterday afternoon.

But the University of Notre Dame football coach still was not the biggest celebrity at the Punahou-'Iolani game watched by a crowd of about 2,500 and a statewide TV audience.

That honor belonged to the player he came to evaluate: Punahou senior linebacker Manti Te'o.

Weis arrived in Honolulu around 2 p.m. yesterday — sitting next to Gov. Linda Lingle on his flight — and headed back to the Mainland at 8 p.m., but during the short visit he got to see first-hand why Te'o is regarded by some as the nation's No. 1 linebacker prospect.

Te'o made about a dozen tackles to help the Buffanblu hold 'Iolani to just 10 yards rushing in a 49-7 victory, and also showed off his versatility and athleticism by playing fullback and scoring on touchdown runs of 14 and 15 yards, plus a 17-yard TD reception and 46-yard return of a blocked punt for a score.

Te'o then spent about a half-hour after the game signing autographs for at least 40 to 50 elementary school kids — scribbling "Manti Te'o #5" on plastic footballs, T-shirts, caps, even a cell phone. He also posed for more than a dozen pictures with friends and total strangers alike.

Per NCAA rules, Weis is not allowed to talk about individual recruits, but it's no secret Te'o is near the top of his list.

"My son plays high school football, but other than his games, I've only been to one game in person this year, and this is it," Weis told The Advertiser during halftime yesterday.

Te'o had more than 30 scholarship offers — from some of the top programs in the country — but narrowed his list to five last month: Notre Dame, Southern California, UCLA, Brigham Young and Stanford.

Weis visited the Punahou campus in February and Te'o said yesterday Notre Dame has no objections to him serving a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Coach Weis called me earlier this week and said he was coming here," Te'o said. "It's definitely huge, especially for him to come and leave the same day. You want to put on the best show you can, to show that it's not just hype. But I definitely couldn't do it without my teammates — they helped me make the plays."

Weis said he saw "a lot of big-time players" in yesterday's game and plans to recruit Hawai'i kids in the future.

"We're going to make a much more concerted effort to tap into the resources here," he said.

Read his blog on high school sports at http://preptalk.honadvblogs.com