Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive…move over Superman, because it’s all about Notre Dame’s Stephon Tuitt.

Tuitt is a household name not only among the Irish faithful, but around the country as well — that tends to happen when you have twelve sacks in a season and make some serious highlight reel plays. He will be back for his junior season for the Fighting Irish, and will be competing with Jadeveon Clowney for the top defensive end spot in next year’s NFL Draft.

While “Do It, Tuitt” has been a common refrain after number seven makes a big play, there is actually a new nickname floating around for Tuitt, one that he really likes for himself: the TuTu Train.

So how did that nickname start? It actually originated from one of Stephon’s close friends, Johnny Romano, who coincidentally happens to be one of the Notre Dame Leprechauns. We caught up with Johnny to talk about the TuTu Train:

“You know, I’ve actually been calling him just ‘TuTu’ for a long time, but the nickname TuTu Train became obvious during the Navy game in Ireland. When he recovered that fumble and took it all the way to the house, he picked up so much momentum — just like a runaway train. After the game I called him that, he liked it, and it has stuck for me ever since.”

And it’s true — if you mention the nickname to Tuitt he breaks out in a huge grin and laughs — he thinks it would be totally awesome if the world started using the moniker.

While the nickname never got going during 2012, that should change heading into next season. With Manti Te’o gone, Tuitt and the other loveable defensive lineman, Louis Nix, become the undisputed leaders of a vaunted defense. Knowing he will be a leader, Tuitt made some of his goals known yesterday:

“My stats for the season were what, 48tkl, 14tkfl, 12 sacks, 3ff, a bunch of hurries. To many people this is awesome — to me, I can do a lot better. I can double all these stats I just said because I know I can, I believe and hold myself to great expectations. And I will do so.”

Sounds like this train is just beginning to get rolling.