Manti Te'o Knew Notre Dame was Doomed Against Alabama in 2013 National Championship Game

If the 2013 BCS national championship game was a boxing match it would have been stopped early on.

Alabama marched down the field at will on its first three possessions, jumping out to a 21-0 lead before Notre Dame even got the ball to midfield.

By halftime it was 28-0 and the game wound up being so one-sided that its more remembered for Brent Musburger obsessing over Katherine Webb than for any competitive play on the field.

Both teams were rather lucky just to make it to the game as Notre Dame needed crazy comeback wins against Stanford and Pittsburgh to remain unbeaten while Alabama, who lost earlier in the fall to Texas A&M, needed Oregon and Kansas State to both lose in late November just to be in position to make the game.

It wasn't the close calls before the title game where Notre Dame great and 2012 Heisman Trophy runner up Manti Te'o started to feel bad about the Fighting Irish's chances though, it was instead right before the teams took the field. Te'o detailed how the pregrame field entrance for both teams went down and how it entirely deflated Notre Dame.

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Those early Saban Bama squads were putting the fear of God in these teams before the first snap 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/HagJT5SvkV
— Nick Perkins (@NickyPerkss) August 17, 2024

"Alright, this is gonna be a long day"

And that's exactly what it was for Notre Dame as Alabama bested the Irish on the ground 265-32 while holding onto the ball for nearly 40 minutes of the contest.

Notre Dame and Alabama line up in the 2013 BCS National Championship game — Jan 7, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide offensive linesman Barrett Jones (75) prepares to snap the ball at the line of scrimmage against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the second half of the 2013 BCS Championship game at Sun Life Stadium. | Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame won't be playing a team anywhere near as loaded as that Alabama team in the 2024 regular season but will take on a Texas A&M team that is thought to have one of the best defensive lines in college football in Week One this fall.

Will the Irish be up to the test and get the year started right?

We'll find out on August 31.

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