Let’s face it. Nothing that happened in Week 8 topped what we witnessed in Week 7.

LSU crushing Ole Miss was good stuff, but most of y’all don’t even like Brian Kelly, anyway. Jimbo lost again? I’m shocked. Mississippi State outrushing Alabama was astonishing but ultimately irrelevant. Clemson winning and still potentially eliminating the ACC from the Playoff race was an interesting plot twist, but none of that touches what Tennessee did a week ago.

Alas, we have a job to do. And we’ll get to Saturday’s events quickly. But we begin with the postgame, weeklong reactions to Tennessee’s victory over Alabama in Week 7 to kick off the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 8 in and around the SEC.

10. Big Orange mood …

I root for great stories. As such, I must have spent an hour Monday scanning Twitter for celebrations like these. A few of my favorite tweets and reactions to the Vols’ narrative-changing victory:

Peerless Price was one of the Vols’ stars on that 1998 championship team, by the way.

$100,000? Worth every penny. More, please.

University of Tennessee president Randy Boyd spoke for all of Vol Nation.

Only sports can produce that type of all-in happiness. After what Vols fans endured, particularly during the past decade-plus, they deserved the right to keep the party going a bit longer than usual.

9. But, damn, Vols, this wasn’t very nice …

Insert the hysterical laughter emoji here.

Tennessee led UT Martin 45-7 Saturday and had just forced a turnover on downs when Josh Heupel dialed up this beauty of a trick play.

No mercy extended. At all.

That was tight end Princeton Fant with the throw, by the way. Earlier, Fant lined up in the backfield, received a handoff, showed some nice vision/decision-making and jetted around the end untouched for an 11-yard touchdown run. Match that, Brock Bowers.

Takeaway: There is no snooze button in Knoxville.

The funny thing is, if Nick Saban calls that same play in that same situation (he never would), he’d get blasted. If Steve Spurrier calls that same play in that same situation (he most certainly would and probably did), he’d get blasted.

But the Vols are very much in the honeymoon portion of being a contender. They can do no wrong — even with a completely unnecessary, pile-on, trick-play TD like this.

8. So long, ACC …

Let’s start with this: Every undefeated Power 5 champion has made the College Football Playoff.

So why do I have a nagging feeling that Clemson might make history this season and become the first 13-0 conference champion to miss the Playoff?

Have you watched the Tigers?

This is a 4-4 team in the SEC — and that’s hoping they get a favorable draw in the cross-overs — and no better than the 3rd-best team in the Big Ten East.

Clemson isn’t ranked in the top 20 nationally in scoring or points allowed. That second fact is particularly alarming considering we were told all preseason that this was a vintage defensive line, capable of wreaking havoc on every offense in its path.

That front hasn’t gotten home enough to force game-changing plays. The Tigers ranked just No. 31 nationally in sacks entering Week 8. They responded with a season-high 5 to barely hold off SEC cast-off Garrett Shrader and upstart Syracuse.

Dabo Swinney will preach about another quality win over another unbeaten ranked opponent. Poise and pizza for everybody! Syracuse was ranked. But escaping at home and producing a 3rd 1-score victory isn’t how you impress voters. Especially not when you had to change quarterbacks to stay unscathed.

The uniforms are the same and that helmet is still the most glorious lid in all the land, but please don’t compare this Clemson team to the 6 previous Playoff versions. That’s an insult to those Tigers.

The ACC’s big problem is it doesn’t have a better Playoff option.

7. Josh Heupel will win SEC Coach of Year, but Brian Kelly deserves it

LSU is one missed extra point from being a legitimate Playoff threat. That’s crazy.

Nobody had that on their preseason bingo card.

Vegas set LSU’s over/under win total at 7 — barely bowl eligible. Brian Kelly’s Tigers are 1 win from matching it, 2 from topping it. And as unpredictable as the SEC can be, betting on the Tigers to win at least 2 more games this season is an absolute lock.

The real question is whether LSU can upset Alabama in 2 weeks and keep alive its path to the SEC Championship Game.

Kelly, in Year 1, already has made more of an impact than Jimbo Fisher has in 5 at Texas A&M — and Kelly walked into a far worse situation.

6. 6 notable numbers

3: That’s how many undefeated Power 5 teams lost Saturday: No. 7 Ole Miss (now 7-1), No. 9 UCLA (now 6-1) and No. 14 Syracuse (now 6-1).

8: That’s how many turnovers Miami had in an embarrassing loss to visiting Duke.

6: That’s how many turnovers Iowa had in another embarrassing offensive no-show. The Hawkeyes only mustered 8 first downs. That’s not an ideal ratio.

5: That’s how many Tennessee players completed a pass Saturday. Heisman hopeful Hendon Hooker performed as expected (18-of-24 for 276 yards and 3 TDs. Joe Milton (4-of-7 for 135 yards, 1 TD), Princeton Fant (1-for-1, 66 yards, 1 TD), Gaston Moore (2-for-3, 9 yards) and Tayven Jackson (1-for-2, 9 yards) also got in the act. Is 5 a record? If it’s not, it should be.

61-29: That wasn’t the final score, but that was Mississippi State’s rushing total vs. Alabama’s rushing total. Who saw that coming? This was the 4th time in the Saban era that a defense held the Tide to 30 or fewer yards rushing.

38: That’s how many consecutive home games Clemson has won. The latest wasn’t particularly impressive, but it gave the Tigers the ACC record.

5. Iowa has the worst passing offense in Power 5 history

Even Paul Johnson’s triple-option Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets could hit the occasional big play in the passing game and always averaged at least 1 TD pass per game — and they didn’t even try to throw the football.

Iowa has a veteran quarterback — or did, anyway, until Spencer Petras was pulled after throwing 2 more interceptions, including a pick-6 — and is tied for 129th in the nation with just 2 TD passes. This season. Only UMass has fewer.

That’s appalling. And yet another reason Kirk Ferentz has to make a change at OC/QB coach, where his son, Brian, simply hasn’t been able to solve the riddle.

Iowa’s defense scored its lone touchdown, too, in another lopsided loss.

How bad is it? Well, our Saturday Tradition columnist, Alex Hickey, pined for the NCAA to reinstate the TV ban for Iowa football as a punishment for their poor play.

Hide your eyes, kids. Nobody needs to watch this mess.

4. The 4  Playoff teams are …

1. Ohio State, 2. Tennessee, 3. Georgia, 4. Michigan

I was all ready to move Alabama to No. 4, but the Tide looked lethargic in handling Mississippi State.

Moving forward, however, a perfect storm is forming for the SEC to make history and send 3 teams to the Playoff.

Joel Klatt is probably screaming at the clouds right now, but the Pac-12 is done and the ACC is trending in that direction, if not already there. All it’s going to take is a TCU loss to eliminate the Big 12.

If Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama all end up with 1 loss on Selection Day, all 3 will be heavy favorites to join Ohio State (or Michigan, if the Wolverines beat OSU again and win the B1G).

(Again, I don’t think it happens because I don’t think Alabama is good enough to make it happen.)

3. What to make of Bo Nix and The Mighty Ducks

Oregon will be a fascinating case study for the Playoff committee.

The Ducks have flat-out dominated the Pac-12 and Bo Nix has often looked like a legitimate Heisman threat, not the butt end of a Heisman joke like he seemingly was every week at Auburn.

There’s just one, little problem: 49-3.

Every week doesn’t matter. Five of the 8 Playoff-era champions suffered a loss and several other 1-loss teams made the field. Heck, 2-loss Auburn would have made the field in 2017 had it beaten Georgia in the SEC title game.

So, no, every week doesn’t matter. But every beatdown most certainly does. That’s why 1-loss Ohio State was left out in 2018 after a 24-point loss to Purdue and 1-loss Texas A&M was essentially eliminated after a 28-point loss to Alabama in 2020.

Oregon losing by 46 is an unforgivable margin — complicated by the fact Georgia made Nix look like, well, the same quarterback who struggled so frequently in the SEC.

Since that Week 1 whipping — and playing teams near or below Oregon’s weight class — Nix and the Ducks have thrived. Saturday, he had another big day as the Ducks undressed undefeated UCLA. Nix tossed 5 TD passes Saturday. He has 17 TD passes this season — already exceeding his career-high at Auburn.

That’s great, except that pesky first-round TKO fueled every negative Pac-12 stereotype that exists. Perception is damn near impossible to beat. And the Pac-12’s problem is just like the ACC’s problem — Oregon looks like the best the league has, just like Clemson.

Georgia’s Week 1 pummeling meant the Pac-12 needed somebody other than Oregon to dominate the league to end its Playoff drought.

And that didn’t happen.

2. It’s time for Jimbo and Aggies to negotiate a buyout …

Texas A&M lost Saturday to fall to 3-4.

That’s bad enough.

Worse, the Aggies had a bye week to prepare for … South Carolina … and still surrendered 30 points — 7 on the first play and 17 in the first quarter.

The Aggies have lost 3 consecutive games. They still have to play Ole Miss and LSU.

Fisher has now lost at least 4 games in 4 of his 5 seasons. (Should we change his name to Kevin Fisher or Jimbo Sumlin?)

The fully guaranteed contract was a disaster. The fully guaranteed extension was administrative malpractice.

This is shaping up as the worst contract in SEC history.

At this point, both parties need a fresh start.

Would Fisher walk away from all $95 million of his buyout?

Here’s a better question: How much is your reputation worth?

It’s not working. And it’s obvious at this point that it’s not going to work, either.

Call the agent. Cut the check. Cut the losses. Worst-case scenario: Iowa needs an OC.

1. The only way to end this …

Cherish the moment, Vols. College football happiness doesn’t last forever.

Right, Auburn? Miami? USC? Etc., etc.