Mike Golic Jr. challenges Manti Te'o's recollection of 2013 National Championship vs. Alabama

Earlier this year, during one of his first several appearances on NFL Network‘s Good Morning Football, Manti Te’o vividly recalled the look of panic on the faces of his Notre Dame teammates as they watched Alabama leave their locker room ahead of the 2013 BCS National Championship game.

“I vividly remember the silence behind me and I kind of glanced back at my teammates and the eyes on them were so large, I knew at that time, I thought ‘Alright, this is going to be a long day,’” Te’o said in August. “To my guys’ credit, they never flinched, but let me tell you guys, when we played the Alabama team in 2013, there was a difference. There was a difference with those ‘Bama boys.”

That “difference” quickly showed itself on the then-Sun Life Stadium field as the second-ranked Crimson Tide jumped out to a 28-0 halftime lead in the eventual 42-14 victory over the No. 1 Fighting Irish to claim back-to-back national titles for Alabama and Nick Saban.

The clip of Te’o’s recollection quickly went viral, especially among nostalgic Crimson Tide fans. Except, not every player on that 2012 Notre Dame squad remembered the pregame scene quite the same way as Te’o.

“You know what, Manti was a great player for us that season, one of the best college football players I’ve ever been around. And he’s entitled to his opinion. I can only tell you I was as confident as I’ve ever been going into a football game standing there before that field,” former Irish center Mike Golic Jr., a graduate senior on that 2012 team, said on Thursday’s Andy & Ari On3 podcast. “We had prepared for so long ahead of that game, been one of the best teams in the country for so long that year, and had some much time to get ready, I didn’t puke before that game because I’m like, ‘If I’m not ready for this one, when am I going to be?’

“We saw the dudes on tape. We knew CJ Mosely was conducting that defense, we knew HaHa Clinton-Dix was on the backend of that squad, we knew who they had on offense. But from where I stood and my vantage point, I felt perfectly confident,” Golic Jr. continued. “I understand people from the outside that always ask the question: ‘Did you think you had a chance?’ And my response, pardon my language, is always: ‘F*** yeah, I thought we had a chance.’ What are you talking about? We had won 12 games (that season).”

Golic Jr. cites Notre Dame’s inexperience for championship rout

Golic Jr., the son of famed Notre Dame/NFL alum and former ESPN personality Mike Golic Sr. with whom he co-hosts the popular podcast GoJo and Golic, acknowledged that 2012 Crimson Tide squad was the superior team that day, but attributed most of the Irish’s issues to inexperience on a big stage.

“The game got away from us in the quicksand that a lot of teams have to watch out for when it comes to postseason football, that if you’re not used to this stage can happen quick. Where one mistake becomes two, when all of a sudden you realize the gravity of the moment,” Golic Jr. said. “And the team on the other side who’s been to a bunch of these, and in that case was trying to go back-to-back, their heart rate isn’t raising above a certain point because they know the ebbs and flows of this game.

“That’s a very real thing, that’s where you saw the differences between the two teams really show up in addition to some of the physicality. But going into that game, at least I felt fine in that moment, and the guys we were getting ready to walk out with, I thought felt like we were ready for the challenge that day. We were wrong, but we felt like it.”