Manti Te’o recently claimed that Notre Dame was completely scared by the Alabama Crimson Tide before the two teams met on the field for the BCS Championship in January 2013.
For those who need a refresher, Eddie Lacy, AJ McCarron, and the then-No. 2 Crimson Tide defeated top-ranked Notre Dame 42-14 for the BCS final, securing their second consecutive national title and third in four years.
According to a former Notre Dame linebacker who has joined the NFL Network’s redesigned “Good Morning Football” lineup, the game was done before it ever began.
Te’o described how the Irish, as the home team, entered the tunnel before the game began but had to wait until the “visiting team” emerged first.
He was one of the captains and stood up front. The Irish were noisy and excited.
“Alabama’s locker room door opens, and they start running out,” he says. “I remember this vividly. My soon-to-be Charger teammates, DJ Fluker (6-5, 340) and Chance Warmack (6-2, 323), were sprinting out of the locker room with their shirts up. They had their bellies out and their ‘4s’ up (four fingers each). The DJ goes by saying, ‘Womp, womp.’
“And I definitely recall the silence behind me, and I kind of glanced at my teammates behind me, eyes fixed on them. They were really huge. At that point, I realized it was going to be a long day.
Lacy, the game’s offensive MVP, scored one touchdown and caught another in the closing minute of the first half, securing a 28-0 lead. He ended with 140 yards on 20 carries.
McCarron completed 20 of 28 passes for 4 touchdowns and 264 yards.
“To my guys’ credit, they never flinched,” Te’o told the crowd. “But when we played that Alabama team in 2013, there was a difference with those Bama boys.”
Te’o’s college career came to an end on a sour note, as the linebacker was catfished. It was revealed that Te’o was misled into a connection with what he thought was a woman named “Lennay Kekua.” Kekua, of course, turned out to be a Te’o family buddy named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, and when the truth was revealed to the public, the former linebacker described it as “painful and humiliating.”
He made light of the drama, as you can see below.
