The Alabama football team was once again in full pads for its Wednesday afternoon practice. The weather has improved as the week has gone on, though it looks as though there is a chance of rain again this weekend. According to Coach Saban, Bama practices with a wet ball every Monday, so if rain does come into play on Saturday, the Tide will be ready.

Here's what you need to know:

Based on feedback in our forums, I've adjusted my Blogpoll ballot. I've removed my Arkansas stunt vote, and replaced it with Auburn. I also moved Florida back to the second spot, because, on further reflection, Texas didn't really show me much either.

Full poll after the jump.

I guess my days as a weather forecaster are over, and that's good news for the Alabama football team. The weather in Tuscaloosa cleared up this afternoon, and the Tide was able to have its full pads practice outside.

Here's what you need to know:

How bad is North Texas?  That's the question of the week, because what we know right now is that either North Texas is really really bad, or else Bama is really really good.

The final score, 53-7, sounds like a beatdown, but it actually wasn't that close.  At least as long as the Bama starters were in the game, this was total domination of a sort that Bama has not exercised in quite a while, possibly since the Bear Bryant days.  Both our offense and our defense did whatever the heck they wanted to whenever they felt like it.

Let's break it down.

While the rain held off during Alabama's 53-7 win over North Texas on Saturday, the Tide football team had no such luck today. The weather in Tuscaloosa is downright awful, and really isn't expected to improve until later in the week. So expect to see a lot of use of the Hank Crisp Indoor Practice Facility.

Today's indoor practice was in shells, and here's what you need to know:

The Tide is still comfortably behind Texas in this week's polls, but a fair number of the top analysts at various prestigious sports sites are starting to talk about us as having played the best ball in the country so far.  (And justly so, I might add.)

Sometimes this kind of talk leads to a swing in the following week's polls.  If nothing else changes, look for Bama to keep inching up on Texas next week.

Some examples from major college football sites follow are below the fold:

Hey, we're Blogpollin'! My draft ballot is after the jump.

There's a new sherrif at the top of the poll... call me a homer if you must.

Before I get to actually grading the Tide on the areas that needed improvement, I just want to say how thankful I am that Alabama has the coaching staff that it has. After watching the unbelievably poorly coached West Virginia team squander a chance to beat Auburn, I have come to the realization that it has only taken two years and three games for me to become spoiled by this staff.

Anyway, when you win 53-7, obviously the grades are gonna be pretty good. Here's how it breaks down:

It's before 7:30, and I'm about to leave for Bryant-Denny. It's raining, seems miserable, and there's no football on.

Who loves 11:20 kickoffs?!

Aside from all that, it's GAMEDAY!

Here are our links.

• Deadspin takes some cheap shots at Auburn. Obviously, I'm compelled to post this.
• A couple of articles about the pistol formation this morning. One more specifically about Alabama's use of the pistol, and one generally about the formation and how Nevada uses it (as thier primary offense).
• Glenn Gilbeaux from Baton Rouge talks about how many players LSU has in the NFL... then mentions who recruited most of them. (HINT: It's not Curley Hallman).
• Someone doesn't think that Jim Tressel should be Big 10 coach of the year. I'm pretty sure this article says nothing about Tressel's mother, but that's about the only positive thing we can say about this articles treatment of Tressel.
• Finally, another note from the guys at Smart Football - this one about the passing offense. This one is a bit dense, but worth the trouble.

After week one I showed Bama with two As, one B, an incomplete, and an F in the areas I hilighted as being in need of improvement. It's tough to find five areas that really need to be addressed after a 40-14 win, though I'm guessing Coach Saban didn't find it that difficult. I will say that I think it's a safe bet you'll see a reoccurance of the failed item in this week's list of things to improve on.