Will we look back on Week 8 as Separation Saturday?

The matchups look enticing, but I’m not expecting any Playoff-altering upsets. Not in the SEC, anyway.

What will we get? Well, that’s why they play the game, but here are the headlines we expect to see Sunday morning.

Butch Jones finally gets to enjoy that victory cigar

Lighting up afterward is one of the great Alabama-Tennessee traditions, but Jones went 0-5 as Tennessee’s coach against the Tide.

Now, of course, he’s on the other side, as an offensive analyst. Bama players have had their share of fun with him, too.

https://twitter.com/Marq_Burnett/status/1052264827375239170

Jones is an easy target. But either he or Nick Saban made a savvy decision upon arriving in Knoxville, where the reception could have been unpleasant. Jones walked in with everybody’s favorite quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa.

Third Saturday in October just like every other Saturday in October

Tennessee had a great win over Auburn. I’m not going to rain on the moment by pointing out all of Auburn’s flaws.

Let’s just say Alabama has none of those flaws.

As Alabama’s coach, Nick Saban is 11-0 against Tennessee. He’s also undefeated against his former assistants. Both trends continue in a big way today.

Alabama has scored 50 points 5 times this season, matching the program record set in 1945.

Will they break that record today? About that …

Jalen Hurts throws 3 TDs to lead Alabama romp

Back when some of y’all still thought Jalen Hurts was good, all he did was go 2-0 against Tennessee, putting up 49 and 45 points on the Vols in the process.

You might say “big deal.” I’d say, few other Bama QBs matched that. In fact, you have to go back to 1986 and 1987 to find the last time Alabama scored more points in consecutive games against Tennessee. Those Tide teams put up 97, but they did so with different quarterbacks.

So all week the question has been: Should Alabama start or sit not-100-percent healthy Tua Tagovailoa, who re-injured his knee last week.

I wrote last Sunday that the Tide absolutely should sit Tagovailoa and turn this game over to Hurts.

Nothing against Tennessee, and if the other option were a real, untested backup, I wouldn’t feel this way, but Jalen Hurts isn’t untested or a backup. He’s a starting quarterback. An excellent one at that. Let’s see if he can help the Tide get to 50 and break the program record.

Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Hurts has dominated Tennessee twice. He’s going to dominate them again Saturday. Century old rivalries are great and filled with unlikely upset stories, but this is the reality: Today essentially is that dreaded fourth NFL preseason game, where the entire goal is to get out healthy. Alabama’s real test comes after the bye week, at LSU.

Hurts has beaten those guys twice, too, but both times it was a struggle.

Alabama needs Tagovailoa for LSU and beyond. Give him 2 weeks. Make sure he can escape, move, run. Make sure he can return to the huddle after taking a hit.

If something absolutely wacky happens in the first half today, he can always go into the phone booth and change into his cape at halftime.

Seems like that worked out pretty well the last time.

For Kentucky, 1977 has never been closer …

Kentucky hasn’t had a winning season in the SEC since 1977. That’s the longest such drought among Power 5 teams. It hasn’t started 4-1 or better in the SEC since then, either.

Tonight the Cats get to 4-1 by giving Benny Snell a season-high in carries.

Not sure if you saw Snell’s quote during the bye week, but I laughed. He basically said the Wildcats are going to get back to doing what they do best, i.e, giving Benny the damn ball.

Snell has 128 carries this year. We all know he should have at least one more — the final one against Texas A&M. He only had 13 carries in that game. He hasn’t had more than 28 in a game this season.

He’ll go over 30 tonight, perhaps for his first 200-yard game since hanging 211 on Louisville last season.

LSU stuffs one-dimensional Fitzgerald, Bulldogs

One of the funniest offseason narratives was this notion that Nick Fitzgerald suddenly would become a better passer because, finally, he would have a head coach who knew a thing or two about quarterbacks.

Silly me, I thought Dan Mullen was the QB Whisperer, not Joe Moorhead.

So while Feleipe Franks has flourished in his short time with Mullen in Gainesville, Fitzgerald has remained exactly who he has always been with Moorhead: A running back disguised as a quarterback.

Also: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that — unless you build a game plan that necessitates Fitzgerald making plays with his arm. Moorhead tried that. It was a disaster.

Then Moorhead found his coaching pills — probably by putting in game tape of how Mullen got the most out of Fitzgerald — and voila! — Fitzgerald ripped off 195 yards on the ground to beat Auburn.

Expect Moorhead to stick with that game plan tonight at LSU — just don’t expect it to produce another upset.

Not after what happened last year. LSU’s 30-point loss to Mississippi State was the Tigers’ worst in series history.

Nobody bounces back like Ed Orgeron, and he’ll prove it again tonight.