• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 2, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

So, here we are.

It was on off-the-table, taboo subject for 3 1/2 weeks and understandably so because the LSU football team had some emotional wounds to heal, as well as some obstacles to scale.

Those were very important hurdles the Tigers had to clear cleanly to make sure this week would really mean something.

Remember — as if you’ve forgotten — that 3 1/2 weeks ago, LSU sure didn’t resemble a team headed toward a month of November with so much meaning after falling flat in a 13-3 loss to top-ranked Florida.

Funny thing happened, though, in the what-have-you-done-lately world of college football.

The No. 9-ranked Tigers came off an open week and handled their last two games by playing as well as they have all season.

So now Saturday’s game at No. 3 Alabama is squarely in the spotlight nationally, and the gag order is lifted.

But trying to figure out exactly what to say/write about LSU-Alabama today, before anybody within the walls of either Southeastern Conference compound has uttered a word, is a little tricky because of how both teams enter the fray.

This is only the second time since 1978 the Tigers and Crimson Tide lock horns as top-10 teams, so you know there will be plenty of over-analysis until 2:30 p.m. Saturday, when the ball finally gets kicked off.

There certainly seems to be a sense of role reversal five days short of the most meaningful LSU-Alabama game on the field — as in regardless of who’s coaching which team — since 2005.

LSU’s stock is clearly rising. The Tigers are starting to get mentioned nationally as a dark horse in the national championship race.

Alabama is backsliding a bit in the national eye, dropping from No. 1 two weeks ago to No. 2 last week and now No. 3 despite not even taking the field.

The Tide seems to be absorbing the same kind and level of criticism to what the Tigers endured leading up to their only loss.