Over the last couple of days, we've compared Alabama's 2009 stats to its 2008 stats, and Florida's 2009 stats to its 2008 stats.  We concluded that Alabama is clearly better than it was in 2008, while Florida is at best about the same.  However, we cautioned against drawing the conclusion that Alabama should therefore win because they played Florida nearly straight-up in the SECCG last year.

Now we'll take some of those numbers we've already looked at, the 2009 stats for each team, and compare them to each other.  Once again, we need to set a context by discussing the schedules the two teams have played.

While it wasn't against a marquee opponent like the Tide's last two wins, the Alabama basketball team wrapped another win in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday night, beating North Florida 73-51.

After a poor stretch in the first half culminated in North Florida leading 31-30 at the half, Bama dominated the entire second half by a score of 43-20.

The Alabama football team held its final practice of the week with a media viewing period this afternoon. The full pads practice was held inside the Hank Crisp Indoor facility due to Saturday's game being inside the Georgia Dome.

Here's what you need to know:

Alabama wasn't so terrible in 2008, either.  Maybe if you only watched the Tulane and Utah games, you might not be too impressed, but if you watched ‘em all, you were.  Alabama established an intimidating, physical team identity early on and rode it to a 12-0 regular season and the kind of performance in the SEC championship game that made losing nothing to be ashamed of.

So how does this team compare to last year's squad.  We'll work the same mumbo-jumbo here as we did in Florida vs Florida, examining Alabama's 2008 regular-season stats and comparing ‘em to this year's.  Once again, we'll set the context with a look at the schedule.

Here's this week's BlogPoll ballot... submitted just under the wire:

Florida wasn't so bad in 2008.  They did win a national championship, after all. With Tim Tebow and every man in the defensive two-deep returning, a lot of folks expected the 2009 version of the Gators to reach legendary status.  But have they?  Are they even better than the 2008 Florida team?  As good?

We don't know, but we're going to chew the idea over a bit, anyway, taking a look at some of the stats that matter.  We'll compare Florida's stats for the 2009 season to Florida's stats for the 2008 regular season.  (Regular season 2008 stats make a better comparison point, as opposed to stats including the Alabama and Oklahoma games, which tend to skew things a bit, and for which comparable games this season have yet to occur - if they will ever do so.)

The Alabama football team has practice number two of the week on Tuesday afternoon. Once again the Tide was inside the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility, though the Tide was in full pads today.

Here's what you need to know:

Let the hype begin!

Check that . . . as honored as we at BSR would be to actually begin the hype for this week's game, it has already started elsewhere.

Still, in the spirit of looking forward to what may be an all-time classic, here's last year's Florida From The Couch, a reminder of what was itself a pretty darn good ballgame.

It's SEC Championship Game week and the Alabama football team held its first practice on Monday afternoon. The players were in shells, as is usually the case on Monday, and the practice was held inside the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility. There was some rain earlier in the day, but my guess is that the team will practice inside all week due to the game Saturday being played inside.

Here's what you need to know:

It shouldn't be too surprising that Alabama came out of the tunnel without focus for this game.  The Tide, which thrives on routine, was playing on six days rest.  Memories of six straight losses to a particular team become ancient and irrelevant awfully quickly when you schooled that team 36-0 the year before, and have beaten them like a drum in recruiting three years running.  It may not be forgivable, but it's certainly understandable that the Tide appeared to be thinking about next Saturday's Game of the Millenium a wee bit in the first quarter on Friday. 

But then Auburn got their attention.  The Tigers kept playing hard, but a 14-point lead was not enough against a focused Tide.