Alabama Vs Florida at Bryant Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, Alabama Live Pre Game

It just feels like a football Saturday in Tuscaloosa, and a fall day, at that. They say it could go down to 55 degrees by the end of the game, a welcome relief for a guy from Florida.

The tailgaters were out in mega force and all my favorite free parking spaces were a full three hours before kickoff. But I met my editor, Mike Lacy from Touchdown Alabama and we spent a while trying to figure out a new camera setup for player interviews. Unfortunately, you need a degree from Cannon to work it, so we left that for the cameraman to figure out.

I had a nice pregame talk with Gary Danielson of CBS Sports and we were joking about a name the running back duo contest he proposed on Finebaum's show.

I told him my choice was my own, Romp and Stomp. He liked that a lot and told me some of the other goodies. I told him I had heard through the grape vine that Alpha and Omega were the winners.

He said no, that the real winner was Fast and Furious.  I like that, but when I asked him why that one, he told me that Mark Ingram actually picked it as his favorite and that certainly carried a lot of weight.

Later I had dessert with Vern Lundquist's wife who was seated with us and she told many good traveling and cruise stories. She travels with Vern often and she's quite a fan. I told Vern he's a lucky man to have a wife like that and he just beamed.

I also had a chance to talk to Chuck Johnson, the director of the Tostitos BCS Championship Bowl and of course had to tell him I didn't think he was the least bit presumptuous in being here already. We had a good laugh over all of that.

After a nice buffet spread in the back of the press box, I decided to sit and start seeing how this live blogging works.

I have the web cam finally working, the microphone is good, but discovered that it's not live after all, so streaming you anything is not in the cards, but I've shot some good pictures.

I had some snacks with an old friend Kirk McNair of Bama Magazine and he said he would coming down to Panama City Beach as soon as he got a call. 

At 53 minutes before kickoff, the student section is almost all filled in and the stands are about 50% full.

The backup kicker for Florida doesn't appear to be that much of a drop off. The starting kicker has a bad back, and I had hoped that would be good news, but the punter was a pretty good kicker in high school and has a decent leg and good accuracy 

The Tide players took the field at 50 minutes before kickoff and are warming up. no limp at all from McElroy and he looks very comfortable. Dareus on the other hand has yet to come out and it just the offensive skilled people warming up now. 

This is the game that everyone wanted to be at, and the press box is full and the sidelines have as many photographers as a national championship game.

More later.