Well that was fast.

A month of college football has come and gone. Fear not. We get two more months in the regular season to figure this whole thing out.

Who are the title contenders? Who will win the Heisman Trophy? Who is off everyone’s radar and capable of making a second-half run?

All of those questions will be answered in due time. For now, though, here were the 10 biggest takeaways from the first month of the college football season:

1. The SEC is DEAD

OK, just kidding. It’s an easy narrative to support with the likes of LSU and Tennessee not meeting lofty preseason expectations. In actuality, Alabama is still Alabama while Georgia looks like Alabama East.

This isn’t going to be a year in which the SEC has six top-25 teams all season, but including Auburn, it wouldn’t be surprising if three SEC teams held top-10 spots throughout the season’s second half. That wouldn’t suggest the SEC is dead at all.

2. Lamar Jackson did not forget how to football

Just in case fans expected the reigning Heisman winner to lock himself in his room and hug his trophy all season, it appears he’s still pretty good. The Clemson game was rough, but ask Jarrett Stidham how fun it is to play against that Tiger defense. Jackson still has over 2,000 yards of total offense and 18 touchdowns for Louisville. He isn’t leaving the Heisman conversation anytime soon.

3. The Ed Orgeron honeymoon is officially over

That’s what happens when you get dunked on by Dan Mullen and taken to school by Troy. There wasn’t enough gumbo in Louisiana for Orgeron to drown his sorrows in after those two clunkers.

Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

The hot seat talk is already alive and well in his first full season as LSU’s coach. Orgeron’s $12 million buyout might be his best friend in the Bayou.

4. TCU isn’t same team that Arkansas beat in 2016

When I picked the Razorbacks to beat the Horned Frogs, I expected to see the same unit that Austin Allen diced up in Fort Worth a year earlier. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Not only did TCU stymie the Hogs and roll to a 28-7 win, it also contained Mason Rudolph and that high-powered Oklahoma State offense two weeks later. TCU went from unranked in the preseason to No. 8 heading into October.

Yowza.

5. Joshua Dobbs looks like Tennessee’s 2017 MVP

I said all offseason that I thought Tennessee fans would finally appreciate Dobbs in 2017 … a year after he graduated. The Vols’ quarterback situation has been dreadful, which was magnified Saturday in the program’s worst home loss in more than a century. Quinten Dormady is not the answer and Jarrett Guarantano hasn’t exactly provided much reason to believe that Tennessee’s offense can get better. Are we sure Dobbs can’t get another degree and finish out the season in Knoxville?

6. Florida State won’t come near Alabama rematch

I wrote before the hyped 2017 opener that I didn’t think Alabama and Florida State would get a national title rematch for the sheer logistics of it. Any possibility of that ended when Deondre Francois went down and the Seminoles subsequently dropped a home game to North Carolina State.

Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

In one month, FSU went from being projected to play in the national championship (by some) against Alabama to being projected to play in the Pinstripe Bowl against Indiana. Life comes at you fast.

7. Saquon Barkley vs. Derrius Guice didn’t happen

Just like with Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey in 2016, we didn’t get to see the two preseason All-Americans battle each other for the title of “nation’s best back.” To be clear, Barkley owns that title through one month, but injuries and a weak LSU offensive line prevented Guice from joining that conversation. Now, it looks like Barkley vs. Stanford’s Bryce Love will be debated for the rest of 2017.

8. There is no power conference in 2017

There are four ranked teams outside the Power 5 -- USF, San Diego State, Notre Dame and UCF.

I apologize if you read this from me already in 2017, but bear with me. For all the talk about the SEC being down, the flip side of that is no one has really been “up.” Through five weeks, here’s how the Associated Press poll breaks down by conference:

  • ACC: 5
  • SEC: 4
  • B1G: 4
  • Big 12: 4
  • Pac-12: 4

The ACC only has one top-10 team, though. The B1G has four top-10 teams, but it’s a severe dropoff after that. After Stanford stumbled and USC suffered its first loss, the Pac-12 doesn’t look as top-heavy as some thought. And the Big 12 looks solid, but it certainly hasn’t been a true “power conference.”

It’s not a bad thing to have that title up for grabs before the College Football Playoff committee weighs in.

9. Year 2 of Kirby Smart looks like smashing success

Stop me if you’ve read this in the last couple weeks, but Georgia is for real, y’all. The Bulldogs look like one of the most improved teams in college football in Smart’s second season. Why? The defense has speed, depth and just pure talent. It helps that the right guy is coaching it, too.

Offensively, the Bulldogs finally found their groove with true Jake Fromm, who looks like he stole the starting quarterback job from the injured Jacob Eason.

For Georgia to outscore its past two opponents 72-3 is one thing. Considering both of those opponents were SEC teams who spent multiple weeks in the Associated Press top 25 this year, that’s saying a lot. It’s early, but Georgia is clearly the team to beat in the SEC East.

10. Alabama and Clemson are gearing up for Part III

I wrote in my “10 previously unthinkable headlines” story that it already appeared Alabama and Clemson were the best two teams in the country. While the likes of Oklahoma, Penn State, Washington and Georgia could certainly factor into that equation, Alabama and Clemson look like they’re capable of running the table and facing off in yet another national championship game.

Nick Saban vs. Dabo Swinney is clearly turning into the best modern college football coaching rivalry. That’s what this all boils down to. Sure, players like Deshaun Watson and Derrick Henry provided memorable moments in this rivalry, but it’s all about two coaches that know how to embrace their respective targets better than anyone in college football.

Will we get the grudge match? That’s anyone’s guess, but for right now, it’s hard to predict anything else.