We dig into football deep here at Saturday Down South, providing the fix that our hardcore fans crave. But let’s not fail to see the forest for the individual trees. Every season has a big over-arching narrative. 2016’s narrative was probably that the non-Alabama SEC was very ordinary, and Alabama was one defensive stop from being historically extraordinary.

What about 2017? Here are five guesses:

1) The Gus Bus

Auburn’s defense last season held opponents below 24 points per game for the first time in the 2010s — and did so by almost a full touchdown. The ground game, with 271 yards per game, was the best since 2013, when Auburn lost the national title by a field goal. If Jarrett Stidham can add a reasonable passing game — maybe, say, 214 yards per game worth (that was Cam Newton’s 2010 total) — Gus Malzahn’s Tigers could be the spoiler of all spoilers.

2) Quarterbacks

The league had a fairly dire group of passers in 2016, with only Austin Allen of Arkansas and Drew Lock of Mizzou passing for 3,000 yards. Sure, dual-threat guys such as Jalen Hurts and Nick Fitzgerald were better QBs than their passing stats revealed. But this season could be much better. Jacob Eason will either be much improved or will give way to Jake Fromm. Malik Zaire or Feleipe Franks can’t help but improve Florida’s passing game, and the same is true of Stidham at Auburn. Shea Patterson looks destined for stardom, and Jake Bentley isn’t far behind. Says here the league has half a dozen 3,000-yard guys in 2017.

3) Georgia defining the East

We’ve written plenty about how — and why — the East is the red-headed stepchild of the SEC. If things are going to change, Georgia will have to do the heavy lifting. On paper, the Bulldogs are the East team with the best chance at being competitive with the heavies of the West. But then, that’s been true for years, and the Bulldogs have disappointed over the last four seasons. Still, Kirby Smart returns his defensive studs and almost all of his offensive playmakers, and adds one of the nation’s best recruiting classes. If the Bulldogs take care of Mississippi State and win at Auburn, they’ll give the East a shot of respectability. If they go 1-1 or 0-2 in those game, it could be a long fall for the East … again.

4) Hot seats at Tennessee, A&M

Butch Jones and Kevin Sumlin have coached four and five seasons, respectively. Both were offensive gurus with tons of promise, and both have failed to deliver with much consistency. Both programs had heavy off-season losses and must redefine themselves with talented, but inexperienced players. It is entirely plausible that Jones and Sumlin are both fired in December. Or that Jones upsets Georgia to claim the East and Sumlin finds a way to finish in the top half of the West, and both are signing contract extensions. Both have talented but inexperienced playmakers at quarterback, and it’s probably the progression of freshmen Kellen Mond and Jarrett Guarantano that will tell the story of their respective 2017s.

5) Nick Saban getting his revenge

Would it really be surprising if the original mad SEC genius has spent the entire summer in a darkened film room cooking up something to blow everybody away. Deshaun Watson had the audacity to defeat Alabama with a last-minute drive for the ages. There’s a fair chance that Alabama goes on a juggernaut of offensive destruction and destroys everybody in its path en route to the perfect season it just missed. Sure, the Tide lost a lot of playmakers, especially on defense. But betting against Saban rarely pays dividends.