It’s officially August, everyone. We made it! There’s college football this month.

The NFL preseason officially kicked off last night with the Denver Broncos playing the Atlanta Falcons in the Hall of Fame Game, and today, most college football teams start fall camp.

There will be plenty of stories to come out of fall camps, and when Week 0 kicks off on Aug. 24 with Florida facing rival Miami, the long wait for college action will finally be over.

Here are your questions for this week’s SDS Mailbag:

Robert:

Is Clemson’s dominance bad for the ACC?

The Tigers have made it to the past 4 College Football Playoffs, twice with 13-0 records and twice with 12-1 marks. In 2017, they lost at Syracuse and in 2016, they lost at home to Pitt. Those are their only regular-season losses during that four-year span.

The drop-off from the rest of the conference has really been noticeable in the ACC title game the past 2 seasons. After winning the 2015 and 2016 league titles by a combined score of 87-72, Clemson won the past 2 to the tune of an 80-13 aggregate score.

In the Coaches’ Poll that was released Thursday, the ACC only has one other team ranked besides Clemson (the No. 1 squad). That team is Syracuse, at No. 22. That’s not ideal for the conference as a whole, though having the Tigers at No. 1 is certainly a positive.

The conference will benefit from Clemson’s dominance, but unless Miami can turn things around (a possibility since they have the No. 8 2020 recruiting class at the moment), or Florida State rebounds from the horrendous funk it has been in the past few years (also possible with the No. 11 recruiting class currently), Syracuse looks to continue to be the Tigers’ only threat in conference play.

That doesn’t make for exciting television with the ACC Network launching this month.

@TannerAngst:

Which SEC team should be on upset alert in Week 1?

Auburn being a 3-point favorite over Oregon is confusing to me. Yes, the Tigers have an incredible defensive line returning, but that offense is going through some major changes.

Gus Malzahn is going to have either redshirt freshman Joey Gatewood or true freshman Bo Nix starting at quarterback. Playing against one of the best teams in the Pac-12 isn’t a great way to break in a new passer.

The Tigers barely beat Washington team last year with star QB Jarrett Stidham and most of the receiving corps returning. This year, they don’t have Stidham or WRs Darius Slayton and Ryan Davis. They also don’t have Deshaun Davis in the linebacking corps, and that’s a bigger loss than most people seem to think.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Auburn is for sure going to lose. I’m just saying I think I’d have the line set as a pick ’em if I were an oddsmaker. This seems like a total tossup to me and I cannot wait to see it in Week 1.

@Dobbe8:

Which 2019 nonconference matchup are you most excited for?

Oh, it’s definitely Mizzou-Southeast Missouri in Week 3. I can’t wait to see how QB Kelly Bryant fares against an FCS defense. I think he’ll easily put up …

No, I’m just kidding. I will be waiting patiently for LSU’s Week 2 trip to Austin to take Texas. We will learn a lot about both squads in that game.

Both fancy themselves as Playoff contenders, but this will basically serve as an early elimination game. It will be tough for Texas to recover from a loss to LSU and then have to beat Oklahoma twice (once in the regular season and once in the Big 12 title game, most likely). Likewise, it would be nearly impossible for LSU to bounce back from a loss at Texas. The Tigers would still have to play Alabama, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Florida and Auburn (in addition to the SEC Championship Game if they somehow managed to win all those games) to make the 4-team Playoff.

It’ll be a lot of fun to see which teams manage to stay alive in the race for the Playoff in those first 2 weeks. With Auburn-Oregon in Week 1 (see above) and LSU-Texas in Week 2, there are some games with high stakes early in the 2019 campaign, which is great for viewers.

Honorable mention goes to Georgia-Notre Dame in Week 4. But that’s not until Sept. 21. I want my big, important matchups, to quote the great Michael Scott, as ASAP as possible!

@MichaelJtr8:

With “Hobbs and Shaw” coming out this weekend, which two SEC coaches would you like to see in an intense action movie?

To me, this is a lot different than a typical “buddy cop” type of movie. In “Hobbs and Shaw,” both Jason Statham and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are badass dudes, so we need 2 big-time characters from the SEC coaching ranks to fill these roles.

The first one is obvious — Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason is getting a starring role, and that’s just a given. Who plays the other lead is a bigger question. I’d go with LSU’s Ed Orgeron. Mason and Coach O add a lot of strength, character and pizzazz to the roles, and I would love to see them acting side-by-side.

Idris Elba is also in the film as the bad guy, and I’d love to see South Carolina’s Will Muschamp in that role. No one can emphatically lose his cool like Coach Boom. The red face, the overdramatic gestures — he’s the perfect movie bad guy.

The more I think about it, the more I want this movie to be made. We need to have an extended dead period during the next recruiting cycle so these three guys can go out to Hollywood and film their own action flick.

@Tom_Hart:

What’s Tom Hart really like?

Well, Tom, I’ve never met you (let’s work on that). I do, however, appreciate that you are a fellow Mizzou grad! And that you’re a Blues fan.

So, since I don’t know you, I asked our SDS Engagement Editor Chris Marler (before he left for what will surely be a raucous bachelor party in Las Vegas) to share his thoughts on Tom Hart, an ESPN and SEC Network broadcaster:

“Tom Hart is one of the most talented personalities in sports media. He is funny, engaging and knowledgeable, no matter what sport or topic he’s discussing. Sadly, he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, due to constantly being overshadowed by Jordan Rodgers’ hair and Cole Cubelic’s lengthy tutorials about the zone-read blocking scheme. Also, I heard he was homeless.”

So there you have it. Hart will call the SEC Network late games along with Rodgers and Cubelic this season, so tune in then to hear his crew. And, if he’s in your town, maybe offer him a place to stay?

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.