Good news arrived early for the SEC in Week 5.

No. 10 Washington routed No. 7 Stanford 44-6 late Friday night, effectively knocking the Cardinal out of the playoff race and putting a serious, serious dent in Christian McCaffrey’s Heisman bid. McCaffrey was held to 49 yards on 12 carries.

Can Washington run the table? Its schedule certainly allows for the possibility — it faces just one more ranked team (at No. 18 Utah on Oct. 29) — but Stanford was viewed as a more legitimate playoff threat.

If Houston finishes the season undefeated (it would have to beat Louisville at home on Nov. 17), the Cougars likely will become the first Group of Five team to steal a playoff spot. That spells trouble for one-loss teams from the Pac-12 and Big 12, more so than a one-loss SEC team.

At any rate, Stanford’s loss opens the door for Tennessee to jump into the Top 10 if the Vols can beat Georgia at 3:30 p.m. (ET) today. That game is just one of the five things I can’t wait to see today.

1. Deshaun vs. Lamar: Almost nobody circled this game in July, but Louisville’s date with Clemson tonight at Death Valley has playoff and Heisman implications.

It matches the No. 3 Cardinals vs. the No. 5 Tigers. Both teams are unbeaten. Both are led by explosive, play-making quarterbacks who played high school ball in the south.

Deshaun Watson, a Heisman finalist last year, is from Georgia and famously flirted with Auburn. Lamar Jackson is from South Florida and drew serious interest from several SEC teams before following another South Florida quarterback — Teddy Bridgewater — and choosing Louisville.

The SEC would be so much more fun to watch if both of these guys would have stayed closer to home.

Louisville can all but wrap up the Atlantic Division title and trip to Orlando for the ACC Championship Game with a win today; the Cardinals already demolished Florida State.

It’ll get interesting if Clemson edges Louisville and later loses at Florida State on Oct. 29. That likely would result in all three finishing 7-1 in the ACC — and chaos to determine the division champ.

Is it possible two ACC teams make the playoff? It’s unlikely, especially if Houston is in the mix, but Clemson and Louisville are certainly two of the best teams in the country. And those two quarterbacks are as good as any conference’s best two quarterbacks.

2. Are the Vols back? We waited 14 quarters for the real Tennessee to show up. Boy, did they last week against Florida. Thirty-eight consecutive points, 35 in the second half. A long string of three-and-outs. It was exactly the dominant performance we expected when most of us at Media Days picked Tennessee to win the East and some of us (hand raised) picked the Vols to win the SEC title.

This Georgia game is more important than last week’s Florida game. First, it’s on the road. Second, it will show us how well the Vols handle success. Tennessee has won 10 consecutive games dating to last season, but aside from one half, it hasn’t looked nearly as dominant.

A convincing two-touchdown victory today in Athens would push the Vols well into the Top 10 (two other Top 10 teams are guaranteed to lose today) and build momentum for a playoff push.

3. Jalen Hurts cannot get hurt: Blake Barnett was the SEC’s best insurance policy. No quarterback wants that title. And nobody should blame him for wanting to be more than that. So he’s gone … which suddenly and dramatically changes Alabama’s fortunes if Hurts were to get hurt. Cooper Bateman now becomes QB2, which would be fine if this were the Alabama team of old that wheeled and handed off 40 times to running backs. That’s not how this Alabama team is built. This Tide team is Hurts or bust.

I’d expect Bateman to get some second half snaps today against Kentucky, though. He’s thrown just four passes this season. And Alabama’s season starts for real next week at Arkansas.

4. Coach O makes his debut: Is there anybody who doesn’t root for Coach O? Ed Orgeron is everybody’s favorite uncle — except he can actually coach. He’s handled the interim tag before, so that won’t be a problem at home tonight against Missouri.

Drew Lock, however, might be. I didn’t expect Lock to be 1/3 the way to 4,500 passing yards, but you could see as early as Missouri’s opener signs of a better quarterback, a better offensive plan. Lock missed some throws against West Virginia, but the receivers were open. The timing was just a bit off. I wrote then that it looked like something reps could fix, and apparently it has.

Lock has as many weapons as any quarterback in the league, and holding him down will be LSU’s biggest challenge tonight.

Missouri is the most surprising team in the SEC. Picked to finish sixth in the East, the Tigers certainly have played better than that.

5. Can the East beat the West? Every West team except Auburn has an active winning streak against the East. Every East team has an active losing streak against the West.

Ole Miss pounded Georgia last week. Today, three more East-West games are on the slate: LSU-Missouri, Texas A&M-South Carolina and Kentucky-Alabama.

Scratch Kentucky. The Wildcats couldn’t beat Alabama if Calvin Ridley lined up at quarterback.

The Aggies are 18-point favorites today in Columbia. I’m not calling an upset, but it’s interesting to watch because this is the definition of a trap game. Huge, emotional win last week over a ranked Arkansas. A potential top-10 showdown at home next week against Tennessee. The Aggies are almost three touchdown favorites today, but will the play like it?

The East’s best hope? Missouri, but that’s also on the road, at night, in Orgeron’s debut.

The East might have to wait another week: LSU travels to Florida in Week 6.

Chris Wright is Executive Editor at SaturdayDownSouth.com. Email him at cwright@saturdaydownsouth.com.