As the days — or minutes, in Arkansas’ case — until the opening games fall away, everybody and their grandma has a prediction. But this is different. We’re not predicting records or bowls. We’re going with a bold prediction — one for each SEC team in Week 1. We probably won’t hit 1.000 on these, but we’re going big, like a team on fourth-and-20. (The teams are listed in the order the games will be played.)

RELATED: SEC Week 1 schedule
RELATED: Predictions against the spread for each SEC game

Arkansas

Hogs have two 100-yard backs

With apologies to Vince Coleman, who was a two-sport star at Florida A&M, the speedsters in this one are wearing red. Arkansas will have not one, but two 100-yard rushers. A&M is awful (lost to Miami 70-3 last year), and Devwah Whaley and David Williams will both top the century mark before this one is mercifully over.

Missouri

Lock sets a passing record

Last year against Eastern Michigan and Delaware State, Mizzou passed for 907 yards. The school record for passing yards is 480, but it’ll be a higher number by Saturday evening, after Drew Lock threatens 500 in this beating of Missouri State.

South Carolina

NC State wins, sacks Bentley six times

Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports

State is a favorite over South Carolina, so we’ll go with a little inside baseball here. The Wolfpack can get to the passer (three straight years of 30-plus sacks, including 37 last year). As for South Carolina, in its six wins last year, it allowed two sacks per game. In its seven losses, it allowed over four per game. State will put enough heat on Jake Bentley (above) to win.

Florida

Franks flies against Wolverines

Taking Florida in the upset after the rash of suspensions might raise some eyebrows, but it really shouldn’t. Florida has plenty of talented depth. Lamical Perine will be fine in place of Jordan Scarlett. But who is the man under center? McElwain hasn’t hesitated to go young in the past at quarterback, and the guess here is that Feleipe Franks —recently named the starter — has a big game against a Wolverines team that lost 10 (TEN!) starters on defense.

Kentucky

’Cats flip running stats from 2016 game

Last year, UK rushed only 25 times for 96 yards in this matchup against Southern Miss, while the Golden Eagles ground out 262 yards on 68 carries. This year, it goes the other direction. UK will rush for over 200 yards on 50-plus carries, and will top last year’s stats by halftime. Steven Johnson may not pass for more than 96 yards, but the Wildcats will be fine.

Mississippi State

Fitzgerald is SEC’s top rusher in Week 1

No chance of the Bulldogs pulling a Week 1 snoozer like they did last time around. This year, it’ll be a healthy dose of Fitzgerald for Charleston Southern. The Buccaneers lost to Florida State 52-8 in 2016, and this game will look a lot like that one, as Fitzgerald will rush for more than 150 yards.

Georgia

All the postgame talk is about Jake Fromm

Who knows who ends up under center for the Bulldogs, but Kirby Smart won’t red-shirt Fromm, and will work him into the Bulldogs’ win over Appalachian State. Nick Chubb and Sony Michel will be fine, but all the talk heading into South Bend next week will be about the back-up QB. How Jacob Eason reacts will probably define Georgia’s 2017 season.

Auburn

Tigers, not giving anything away, win ugly

The Tigers have excellent prospects ahead of them. But in the opener, they’ll keep it close to Gus Malzahn’s sweater vest. Auburn has a history of starting slowly, and with a new system and a new quarterback, there’ll be some dropped passes and missed timing routes. Still, the Tigers are never going to be in jeopardy, and they’re saving their A game until next week at Clemson. This will be a snoozer, and Auburn won’t cover the hefty point spread.

Ole Miss

Jefferson leads SEC in receiving in Week 1

Some will pick South Alabama to deliver a second consecutive Mississippi surprise. The difference is that last year’s opening week MSU team (which lost 21-20 to the Jaguars) couldn’t pass the ball like Shea Patterson will. Beneficiary number one is Van Jefferson, who was quietly effective in the shadows of Damore’ea Stringfellow and Evan Engram last fall. Jefferson will go for about 150 yards.

Alabama

Francois gets knocked out of the game

Is anything scarier than Alabama with an offseason to prepare? Look at some recent openers? No. 8 Michigan? Beat the Wolverines by 27 in 2012. No. 20 Wisconsin? Beat the Badgers by 18 in 2015. No. 20 Southern Cal? Beat the Trojans by 46 last year. FSU QB Deondre Francois is a Heisman hopeful, but last season, he had a  tendency to rely on his athleticism to get him out of questionable decisions. It won’t work Saturday, and he’ll get dinged up enough to really hurt his Heisman odds.

Vanderbilt

MTSU’s Wildcat formation will give Vandy fits

Vandy knows what it’s getting with Middle Tennessee State. After all, the Blue Raiders passed for 399 yards last year in Nashville. QB Brent Stockstill is back, as are his top two receivers. Five-foot-9 dynamo Richie James isn’t just a great receiver, he’s also a tenacious Wildcat QB. MTSU will catch Vandy preparing to spend the day dropping into pass coverage, and will gash the ’Dores on the ground. Last year, the Blue Raiders outgained Vandy by 151 yards and lost. This year, they change the second fact in that sentence.

LSU

Etling has his best day yet as a Tiger

There’s a fair amount of chaos surrounding the LSU/BYU matchup, but one thing isn’t changing. Matt Canada has kept everything up his sleeve, and he’s looking forward to revealing it. Danny Etling’s top game in 2016 was 324 yards passing against Texas A&M. He’ll top it, and LSU will be the hottest pick in the SEC not named Alabama by Sunday morning.

Texas A&M

After Saturday, fans look forward to Oct. 16

Made you look at the schedule. That’s the Monday of A&M’s bye week. And a 3-4 A&M team will be looking for a new head coach as of that Monday. A&M is in a terrible place, playing in a loaded division, traveling to California to face a mildly superior UCLA team, and trying to figure out what on Earth is going on at QB. In a game that will mirror Kevin Sumlin’s coaching tenure, A&M will take a solid two-score lead into halftime, and will fold like a cheap taco in the second half.

Tennessee

Vols win a grinder … thanks to kicker Medley

Butch Jones will see his life flash before his eyes a few times Monday night. Georgia Tech simply doesn’t make mistakes with the football. For a Tennessee team that was softer on the run than a Charmin factory, that’s bad news. That said, there’s a talent gap between these teams, and Tech’s loss of RB Dedrick Mills hurts. Whoever the QB is, he gets the Vols in position for Aaron Medley to hit a game-winning field goal, and Butch’s hot seat cools down for two more weeks.