Week 1 is loaded with drama, if not necessarily games that will be close.

I don’t care. I’m still recovering from Alabama’s walk-off nail-biter over Georgia.

Today, the first full Saturday of the 2018 college football season, I want to see points. I want to see quarterbacks absolutely going off, wide receivers making safeties miss. The SEC hasn’t had this many elite arms at the same time since, well, a long time.

And then there’s the one who got away … which leads perfectly into 5 things I can’t wait to watch today in and around the SEC.

1. Will Grier, y’all

I’m setting the over/under at 350 yards and 4 TDs. Those are crazy numbers, but West Virginia QB Will Grier is about to launch his Heisman campaign in his hometown, against the team he beat to launch Florida’s run to the top 10 back in 2015.

That day against Tennessee, Grier threw for a then-career best 283 yards and 2 TDs, capping his performance with a 4th-and-14 strike to Antonio Callaway, who promptly caught it, spun and ran 63 yards for a game-winning touchdown.

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

So much has changed since then. Grier has changed teams. Tennessee has changed coaches.

One thing hasn’t. That kid can still sling it. He grew up in suburban Charlotte and set records there as a prep star. He’ll feel completely comfortable working in an NFL stadium, a preview of sorts.

Tennessee hired a former Alabama defensive coordinator as head coach. That’s great, but Jeremy Pruitt doesn’t have Minkah Fitzpatrick patrolling the back end.

Grier came out of the gate last season with a 371-yard, 3-TD performance at Virginia Tech. He topped 300 yards nine times. He tossed multiple TDs 10 times.

The numbers will be big today.

2. Tua vs. Jalen. How about neither?

So this is my dream: Alabama opens the game tonight against Louisville with an empty backfield. But instead of a quarterback, Damien Harris is in the gun and takes the direct snap.

Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, the two quarterbacks, are either standing beside Nick Saban or both lined up out wide, blocking.

Whether that play goes for 5 yards or 50, I want to see Bama run that play back. All the way to the end zone. Benny Snell-like. Maybe Tagovailoa then jogs on to the field to hold, or maybe the Tide just decides to go for 2. And converts that, too.

How awesome of a message would that be? We can win with you, or without you?

I like everything about Hurts and have since his first spring game. I was among the first in the spring and summer of 2016 to suggest that he should start.

But it’s impossible to ignore or excuse the fact that Hurts has not progressed as a passer. He’s still plenty dangerous enough to run the table in the regular season, but Alabama’s goals only begin there.

Tagovailoa obviously is the better passer. It’s not even really worth debating anymore. He’s also far more likely to make more mistakes. Alabama is good enough to overcome those, too, and run the table.

Bottom line: The Tide are going 12-0 with either guy. And a large part of that is everything else that surrounds them.

So remind of them of that tonight, in the opening series.

3. Feleipe Franks and Dan Mullen

There are several new coaches/new quarterbacks, but this is the one relationship that has the most potential to cause chaos in the conference standings.

Florida is far more talented than its scandal-caused 4-7 collapse from a year ago.

Franks doesn’t have to put up Will Grier-like numbers, tonight or this season. Good thing, too. But he has to outperform every other Gator who has played the position since Tim Tebow.

I can tell myself not to overreact to his performance tonight, but if he struggles against Charleston Southern, that’s a really, really bad sign.

His arm, plus those weapons, plus Mullen’s schemes should result in a dozen wide-open, easy throws of 15 yards or more.

That’s really what I want to see tonight: Can Franks consistently stretch the field and get away from the bubble screens and check-downs that have plagued this offense for years.

If he can, Florida has something. If he can’t …

4. The reaction to Georgia, today and all season

Georgia can win its opener today by 50 and it’s not going to stop the boisterous naysayers, who started banging their drum in February about how weak the Dawgs’ schedule is.

They are right, of course. It’s an embarrassingly soft slate, one that should have been addressed.

Georgia is entering 2014 TCU territory, where not only do the Dawgs have to stay perfect, they have to be darned-near flawless in doing so. All it took to boot TCU out of the Playoff was one wild, 3-point loss at a No. 5-ranked team. And TCU beat four ranked teams, something Georgia has no chance to do because it won’t face four ranked teams. It’s possible the Dawgs only play one in the regular season.

Playing the opponent and the scoreboard is demanding. But listen to the roars if Georgia strings together a few wins by 10 or so points, instead of 30 or more. That won’t come into play today against Austin Peay, but it’s going to be a season-long narrative.

5. SEC vs. All Y’all

And so it begins anew.

The Pac-12 and Big Ten were shut out of the Playoff last year. (Fitting, actually, considering the Big Ten was shut out in actual Playoff games in 2015 and 2016.)

Undeterred, we opened the envelope for the 2018 season, and what did we see: Three Big Ten teams in the top 10, three Pac-12 teams in the top 15.

How will the SEC respond? There are three games in particular this weekend that will help shape the narrative, for better or worse.

The SEC is the underdog in all three:

  • No. 9 Auburn vs. No. 6 Washington
  • No. 25 LSU vs. No. 8 Miami
  • Unranked Tennessee vs. No. 17 West Virginia

If the SEC is swept, prepare for the “SEC is overrated” onslaught — and how everything that Alabama and Georgia subsequently do will be viewed through that prism.

It’ll be like 2017 never happened. Which is par for the course for those still unwilling to admit that since the mid-2000s, it’s been the SEC … and everybody else.

Maybe this finally is the year the doubters get their wish. But I doubt it.