As Vandy would say “eyes ahead.”

We’re on to Week 2. Week 1 is but a memory.

For some SEC teams, it was a good memory. It was one filled with a lopsided win and a feel-good beatdown of an inferior opponent. For others, it was a wakeup call that things don’t necessarily change just because the calendar did (looking at you, LSU).

So we’re on to Week 2.

Here are my early impressions of each Week 2 matchup in the SEC:

Alabama State vs. Auburn — Should Auburn sit Tank Bigsby? Or at least consider it?

I’m serious. Shaun Shivers and Jarquez Hunter looked just fine Saturday against Akron, which can’t be much different of a foe than Alabama State. What’s the upside in playing Bigsby given the fact that in 3 of the 4 weeks after that, he’ll face Penn State, Georgia and LSU? Why risk having him out there? He’s too valuable to Auburn staying afloat and competing for a New Year’s 6 bowl for him to play in this one. As painful as it is to even advocate for Bigsby not playing — because it’s electric when he does — you can’t be too conservative with him in a favorable matchup like this.

South Carolina vs. East Carolina — Zeb Noland was fun, but fingers crossed for Luke Doty and Kevin Harris to return

That’s the expectation. Doty was dressed in full uniform, and Harris was actually dealing with an undisclosed illness after he spent fall camp mostly sidelined after an offseason back procedure. Against Eastern Illinois, sure, Shane Beamer could trot out his former grad transfer. Against East Carolina? Something tells me that South Carolina will need Doty and Harris. That has to be the identity moving forward, and while it was excellent to see ZaQuandre White step up, the Gamecocks want their workhorse back at full go.

Pitt vs. Tennessee — I expect the kitchen sink from Pat Narduzzi

We should be in for a nice little chess match between Narduzzi and Josh Heupel. If you recall, Narduzzi won that when Heupel was at UCF in 2019. Pitt celebrated ending UCF’s 27-game regular-season winning streak like it won a national title. Going into what’ll be a raucous atmosphere, I expect Narduzzi to send pressure galore at Joe Milton. The more Pitt can speed up the Michigan transfer, the better. Milton struggled with working through his progressions last year in Ann Arbor, and in a different offense in Week 1, we still saw some of those issues play out. The question is how that’ll play out in his first matchup against a Power 5 team since he was benched against Rutgers last year.

Florida vs. USF — It’s early, but Emory Jones desperately needs a bounce-back game

Because the Anthony Richardson buzz is loud. Real loud. Like, some probably wouldn’t mind if Richardson started against USF. Jones struggled with some of his reads, and he made some costly mistakes. Against a bad USF team, there’s no reason that should repeat itself. What likely will repeat itself is Richardson breaking off a big run and looking like Dak Prescott 2.0. But Jones can gain a good deal of confidence back if he can have a relatively mistake-free showing in Tampa.

UAB vs. Georgia — Let’s see the offense we were promised

Don’t get it twisted. I’m not selling stock in Georgia’s passing game. I’m pointing out that against Clemson’s front, and with Georgia’s banged up pass-catchers, there was no way that Todd Monken was going to potentially expose JT Daniels regularly in the opener. That’s why 12 of his first 16 passes went for 5 yards or fewer. Against UAB his time to throw should be greater, just like his throwing windows. Kearis Jackson, Jermaine Burton and Dominick Blaylock will hopefully be a bit healthier, which should allow for some early fireworks against a well-coached but inferior UAB team.

Texas A&M vs. Colorado (in Denver) — This is a tricky test for A&M’s defense

A couple of reasons I say that; one is the altitude playing in Denver. This early in the year, that’ll be a challenge against anyone, much less against a team like Colorado who wants to control the clock in the ground game. Colorado ran for 281 yards in the opener, and last year, the Buffaloes averaged 212 yards on the ground. Some might say that’ll play perfectly into A&M’s hand with DeMarvin Leal and Jayden Peevy up front. Maybe it will. Still, this is the type of game where the Aggies don’t want to be sucking wind and getting dominated in time of possession, or else advantage goes to the (semi) home team late.

Mercer vs. Alabama — You’ve got to keep those front 7 guys healthy

In the opener, we saw just what Alabama’s front 7 is capable of. In a word, destruction. But that’s when all the pieces are healthy. In the opener, we saw Christopher Allen suffer a serious injury, Henry To’o To’o got banged up making a hit as a runner was going out of bounds, though he’s expected to be day-to-day. Watching what Christian Harris and Will Anderson did, it’s paramount that Alabama gets out of the Mercer game without any significant injuries there. That’s a game-changing group that’s perhaps better at getting pressure than any we’ve seen in the last few years under Nick Saban.

Texas vs. Arkansas — Steve Sarkisian vs. Barry Odom is a much more fair fight in 2021

Last year, Arkansas’ defense was dealing with injuries and depth issues down the stretch when it got rolled by Sarkisian’s Alabama offense. This time, Sarkisian is in Game No. 2, and he doesn’t have the full Crimson arsenal. Granted, he still has a Texas offense that looked pretty solid in a nice Week 1 win against Top 25 Louisiana. Bijan Robinson against Grant Morgan, who will return after his targeting ejection, will be one of the better individual matchups of nonconference play. And does Sarkisian elect to test Jalen Catalon? I wouldn’t. Either way, this is one of the best games of the entire Week 2 slate.

NC State vs. Mississippi State — Did MSU figure something out in the 4th quarter?

Because if it did, it’ll have a much better chance of stringing some scoring drives together. Does MSU need to play with more tempo? Did running the ball a bit more help? Was it getting Pac-12 receiver transfers Jamire Calvin and Makai Polk more involved? I don’t know. What I do know was that whatever the game plan was in the first 3 quarters against Louisiana Tech didn’t work, and rallying back from 20 down in the 4th quarter is the type of thing a team can build on. MSU can, as Mike Leach said, realize a bit earlier that it doesn’t have a dental appointment or a study hall to get to.

NC State shut out USF, and it’s more than capable of making MSU’s first game against Power 5 competition a frustrating one, especially if MSU struggles to block like it did for too much of Saturday’s roller coaster.

Mizzou vs. Kentucky — Does Blaze Alldredge’s Week 1 showing change Liam Coen’s offense?

Seeing the Rice transfer rack up 3.5 sacks in his Mizzou debut was impressive. What’ll be interesting is if that means Kentucky has to switch up its protections and maybe make sure that it isn’t going 4-wide with an empty backfield. We talked all offseason about how Coen is going to spread teams out horizontally and vertically in the passing game. Will Levis had plenty of time to dissect coverages against a bottom-feeder Louisiana-Monroe squad. But Alldredge is going to blitz frequently in Steve Wilks’ defense. Perhaps we see Coen dial up more high-percentage throws early instead of the downfield shots that we saw in the opener. Any way that Wan’Dale Robinson can get the ball in his hands seems like a good one.

Austin Peay vs. Ole Miss — Beware of short rest (for injuries, not the final score)

The bad news for opening up on a Monday night is that Ole Miss suddenly has an extremely quick turnaround. The good news is that the quick turnaround will be for a matchup against an FCS foe who got dismantled by FBS competition last year. The bigger issue for Ole Miss is staying healthy and not suffering any key injuries. One would think that snap counts on Monday night will be monitored. That defense should be better, but dealing with depth issues so early in the season would test that.

McNeese vs. LSU — I mean, I’d hope Ed Orgeron has a good defensive scouting report

Because the dude is facing his son. Cody Orgeron is McNeese’s starting quarterback, and he’s had a fine career, but this is about as “no excuses” of a game as the LSU defense can have. LSU was horrendous in stopping the chunk plays against Chip Kelly’s offense. Clearly, some of the concepts that Kelly ran caught Orgeron and Daronte Jones by surprise. There shouldn’t be anything that catches Orgeron by surprise against his son. He should know all his tendencies and exactly what could give him problems. At least I’d hope.

Vandy vs. Colorado State — Hey, what a nice way to shake off an FCS loss for both!

Who has 2 thumbs and lost games by 3 scores to FCS teams in their openers? These guys! Vandy, I’d argue was a bit tougher to stomach. South Dakota State is at least an elite FCS foe. East Tennessee State didn’t have a program for 12 years during the 21st century. Both teams, I’d guess, will be playing with a bit of desperation. Does that mean we’ll see quarterbacks getting pulled if they struggle? It wouldn’t surprise me. The interesting thing is that Joey Lynch, who is now Vandy’s passing game coordinator, was Colorado State’s offensive coordinator last year. Does that give Clark Lea any sort of advantage for game planning? Or is that sort of out the window when you play as poorly as Vandy did in Week 1? I’d go with the latter.