Before the 2013 BCS National Championship, Manti Te’o's draft stock had him in the first round. Perhaps, that changed against Alabama.

Before the title game, Te’o had only missed two tackles, and recorded 101 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, and seven interceptions. Te’o was a Heisman finalist, and won the Nagurski, Butkus, and Lott trophies.

Against Alabama, the Crimson Tide exposed the Fighting Irish defense and Te’o. When Te’o didn’t allow two missed tackles all year, he had two missed tackles in the first quarter.

Alabama’s duo running back tandem of Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon ran all over the Irish defense and Te’O for 265 yards of total rushing yards.

Te’o wasn’t much of a factor at all, and most of the times when he burst past offensive lineman, he missed Lacy or Yeldon.

CBS Sports NFL draft analyst said of Te’o, “Te’o's first-half performance, when he struggled to avoid being blocked and, more tellingly, missed several tackles on Lacy and Yeldon, should be troubling to pro scouts.

In the biggest of big games you have to play well,” Rang said at halftime. “The fact he’s not has got to be an area of concern for any NFL talent evaluator. You don’t get more NFL (offensive) talent than Alabama. You don’t get a bigger stage. … For of player with his hype to not be able to make tackles, it will hurt his draft stock.”

Te’o missed a big opportunity to impress NFL scouts against Alabama, especially considering Alabama is a team filled with NFL talent. Te’o will  now have to make the most of opportunities at the Combine, along with his workouts for pro scouts.

Courtney Upshaw Might be the Best 34 OLB prospect in this draft

We here at NFLmocks are huge fans of the nfl draft. No game this bowl season has had the wealth of prospects, especially ond defense that the National Championship Game provides. Yesterday I took a look at the Alabama Offensive linemen and LSU Tigers defensive linemen who will play in the N.F.L. in the next two (or three as many are redshirt sophomores).

This morning want to take a look at another position that has a ton of talented prospects, and that is the Alabama Crimson Tide Linebacker corps. Sayre will have more on this game today as well.

The Crimson Tide have an excellent linebacker corps, the best in the nation led in the middle by Dont’a Hightower.

In the 2010 College Football season Hightower was a bit banged up and struggled at times, but this year he has been terrific for the most part and worked himself back into the first round conversation. Hightower is a very smart football player who will be responsible for making a ton of checks for the defense in this game. Hightower also has terrific size for a linebacker at 6’4 260 pounds. Hightower is extremely aggressive and physical and can play any number of spots in any number of defenses at the N.F.l. level. The thing that scouts will need to be sure of on Hightower are two fold: first can he play sideline to sideline in the N.F.L? Does he have the necessary speed and agility? And second. Will his body hold up? If so, Hightower should be drafted before the end of round two. On the season Hightower has 89 tackles, 9.5 TFL and 3 sacks.

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Trent Richardson is one of the highlights of the BCS National Championship Game

Today was a busy day as the BCS Bowl Schedule was Decided/Released. The big controversy is of course going to be surrounded by the fact that Alabama will play against LSU in the National Championship Game. Oklahoma State put forth a last minute case to play LSU with a convincing win against Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game, but it was to no avail. So you know that game, let’s take a real quick look at the other games that are out there and give you a real quick primer. Of course we’ll be here all Bowl season to give you which prospects to watch for in each game. Towards the bottom of the page I’ve listed out all of the bowl games and in a few games quickly mentioned some names to watch. On the days of the bowl games I’ll break down the prospects in more specifics.

Almost every player mentioned below has a scouting report for him on our scouting report page

Rose Bowl: Wisconsin vs Oregon

This game is intriguing on many levels, the biggest will of course be the Power vs speed game. Wisconsin plays a smash mouth style of football while Oregon is all speed. There are a lot of big prospects in this game. Quarterbacks Russel Wilson and Darorn Thomas could use big final games to try and improve their draft stock.

Wisconsin has three offensive linemen who could be drafted in the first two rounds: Kevin Zeilter is having a huge season. Peter Konz could be drafted in the top 20, Ricky Wagner is perhaps a bit of a long shot for the second round right now, but he’s also a N.F.L. caliber tackle.

In the All Star Sugar Bowl

Michigan will play Virgina Tech

The two best draft prospects in this game play for Virginia Tech and they are Running back David Wilson who has had a huge season and he looks to continue that in the Sugar Bowl. A big matchup will be the play of Michigan DT Mike Martin. I also think that Michigan Defensive end Craig Roh is really underrated. A guy who can play both the run and pass very well. They could both use a big game.

Defensive back Jayron Holsey is a ball-hawking off coverage cornerback and it’ll be fun to watch to see how he does in supporting the run game as the Wolverines love to run the football.

Denard Robinson might not be a quarterback in the N.F.L., but he’ snot likely to declare for the draft either way. Michigan also has a center: David Molk to look out for.

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6-3 296lbs Sophomore

Stats:

2008- 4 tackles,

2009- 33 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 9 tackles for loss, 1 INT

Pros:

Marcel Dareus might be the best athlete among the 2011 defensive line draft prospects.  He demonstrated his athleticism when he intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown during the BCS National Championship Game, where he earned defensive MVP honors.  He has great quickness and snap count anticipation.  The combination of those two allows Dareus to penetrate into the offensive backfield.  What makes Dareus such a good overall prospect is his ability to control offensive lineman and stuff the run.  He is versatile enough to play a defensive end in a 3-4 defense and a defensive tackle in a 4-3 defense.

Cons:

As of right now the biggest question mark for Dareus is his experience.  He was part of big rotation along the defensive line at Alabama which limited his snaps.  He needs to show he can make a major impact with consistency.  Some NFL teams are scared off if a player doesn’t receive a lot of snaps.

Thoughts:

Dareus should get plenty of snaps this season to prove he is one of the top prospects in this draft.  His combination of size and ability will have NFL scouts drooling over his potential.  He will get plenty of attention because he is versatile enough to play in any scheme.

Projected Round:

Right now Dareus is on the fringe of our 2011 NFL Draft Prospect Big Board.  I need to see a bigger sampling in order to move him up.  However, he is definitely in the 1^st round discussion based on his potential alone.