Cue Jason Aldean. We’re back, baby. Back in the stadium, back at the tailgates, back to cheering and booing and making Saturdays a living hell for the visiting team.

Week 1 always brings anticipation, but even more so after what we’ve been through.

As such, here are 6 storylines I’ll most interested in watching unfold in the SEC in Week 1.

1. Hello, Emory

So, Dan Mullen spent part of the week talking about a quarterback nobody asked about, touted backup Anthony Richardson, who looks a lot like Cam Newton, right down to his No. 2 jersey.

That’s interesting.

I’m more interested in Mullen’s starting quarterback, Emory Jones.

He’s as touted as QBs get, as dynamic as you’d want. He seems perfectly suited to run Mullen’s offense, which, until last year, anyway, seemed at its best when led by a QB who could run as well as he threw.

Credit Mullen for throwing preferences out the window in 2020 and just riding the passing game.

We all expect the game plan to reverse course and resemble more of Mullen’s Dak Prescott-led attacks at Mississippi State. Plenty of capable and productive passing, but all set up by the threat of a tuck-and-go. Prescott ran for 829 and 986 yards in his first 2 years as a starter, totaling 27 rushing TDs in that span, too.

We know Jones can go. I’m most interested in seeing how well — and how often — he can stretch the field. Arm strength is not the issue. His arm is vastly superior to Kyle Trask’s.

Trask averaged 9.8 yards per attempt last season — a number obviously inflated by Florida’s ability to run after the catch. Most of those playmakers have run off to the NFL.

Jones’ number might be a more legitimate attempt to attack downfield. Can he? I can’t wait to find out.

2. Is Bryce Young really the guy?

Nobody plugs and plays like Alabama. Clemson has come close, but it had a notable dip when it turned from Deshaun Watson to Kelly Bryant. LSU was about as imperfect in 2020 as it was perfect in 2019.

The Bama train just rolls on, personnel losses be damned.

Where else in America could a team lose a Heisman winner, a Heisman finalist and the leading rusher in program history and open the following season as an overwhelming No. 1 and favorite to win it all?

All of Bama’s lofty expectations center around Bryce Young. You’re all in. I get it. I’m taking a wait-and-see approach. Bama’s offense wasn’t nearly as dangerous last season in the few instances in which Young was asked to lead it. There are caveats, sure. But he’s also a small-ish QB with a penchant for trying to make plays outside the pocket with the ball dangling by his hip. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it looks like Bo Nix.

I’m interested to see how well it works against an underappreciated Miami outfit.

3. Jimbo, how much do you believe in Haynes King?

I understand why Texas A&M would ease its new starting QB into the role. Let him throw 20, 25 passes, not reveal any secrets, keep his real strengths off tape, etc., etc.

I also watched Georgia do the same thing with Jake Fromm, robbing him of valuable reps while relying on a nearly fool-proof running game. It worked, until it didn’t. Fromm was 0-6 in games in which he threw more than 30 passes. Those games, not surprisingly, came against Playoff-caliber teams that could stymie the run game and score on Georgia’s D.

Texas A&M has Playoff aspirations. I’ve been saying this for 6 years — and laugh at how everybody is jumping on the offense-wins bus now — but if you can’t hit 40 against good teams, you can’t win it all.

Alabama’s 2020 team beats Alabama’s 2011 or 2012 team by 2 scores. Probably more.

Unleash King on Saturday. Have him throw it 40 times. Take 10 shots downfield. Send a message to everybody. Better to learn he can’t do it now than when he has to do it — against Alabama.

4. Err Raid

Mike Leach’s Air Raid reminds me a lot of Jim Boeheim’s vaunted zone defense. Boeheim developed and perfected that defense specifically to protect the rim in the rough-and-tumble Big East. It was the ideal antidote to deal with Big East monsters like Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, etc. Syracuse basketball became a national force because of it. But what happened when Syracuse joined the ACC?

It had success in Year 1 until teams figured it out. The ACC has always been a shooter’s league and it didn’t take those coaches long to exploit the holes in Syracuse’s zone. That’s why Syracuse hasn’t been in contention for an ACC title since its first year.

Leach’s Air Raid system works — but not necessarily against 8+ guys on the other side who have NFL-type skills. That’s the difference. Leach admitted as much last year without actually admitting anything. Much was made of the fact SEC teams dropped 8 into coverage. That’s not the point. Other opponents have done that for years. The point is, nobody else had 8 as good as most SEC West teams.

SEC defenses are just better than anything Leach’s system faced in the Pac-12 or Big 12. And he’s essentially asking SEC DCs to put more of their skill guys on the field.

He has to adjust. This league is too good, too fast for that system to work. All that space that existed in other leagues disappears in the SEC.

Will Leach commit to running the football more in 2021? He better. Or MSU football will continue to look a lot like Syracuse basketball.

5. It’s go time, Kirby

Kirby can’t win the big one. That’ll be a thing until it isn’t.

Kind of like “Clemsoning.”

I said all offseason Georgia was going to beat Clemson. I’m not changing that stance now, even with Georgia’s injury situation.

This is a game Georgia should win. It has the veteran QB, veteran running room, absolutely loaded defense. Clemson has a ton of talent and very likely the best defensive line in the country. But it’s breaking in a newer QB, leaning on a newer RB. Clemson will be better and more dangerous in Week 3 than it will be Saturday in Charlotte.

Put it this way: If Nick Saban were coaching this exact Georgia team, they’d be favored by 7, at least.

It’s go time, Kirby.

6. Will Matt Corral hit 500 yards?

Last season, Corral set Ole Miss’ single-game record when he threw for 513 yards vs. South Carolina.

Can he top that Monday night against Louisville?

That’s an insane ask, out of the gate, new receivers, etc., but I’m not betting against it. Ole Miss has the national stage to itself Monday night. It’s going to be a 4-hour recruiting pitch: CometotheSip.

I’ll be more surprised if Louisville holds Corral to fewer than 300 yards than if he breaks his record.