Welcome to a new Sunday column designed to digest the college football action of the previous day. For years, I did a Sunday DVR rewind searching for hidden nuggets from Alabama games but this will widen the scope to the rest of the SEC and a few games of note nationwide.

At last, the theoretical is reality.

After yakking about it all August, we have data points from the first weekend of September. No more shadow depth charts, cakes or practice-video paranoia.

Football.

But what really did we learn Saturday afternoon in Jordan-Hare Stadium then up the road in Bryant-Denny?

Neither Auburn nor Alabama saw competition fit for these grand cathedrals of the SEC but it was the assignment each had. All they could do is make UMass and Middle Tennessee State earn that paycheck and it’s fair to say both performed better than SEC peers in similar situations.

Like Alabama and Auburn, two-time defending national champion Georgia looked sluggish taking the wrapper off its new passer. The 48-7 final didn’t look much different from Alabama’s 56-7 or Auburn’s 59-14, but it was just 7-0 Bulldogs until the closing moments of the first half against UT Martin.

Texas A&M was up just 7-0 after the first quarter of a 52-10 rout of New Mexico while Kentucky trailed Ball State 7-3 after the opening period of a 44-14 win.

Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame also started slow on the Saturday of Labor Day. So did Texas. The Longhorns trailed Rice early and settled for three first-half field goals before consuming the starch in its appetizer for Alabama. Still, the 37-10 wasn’t quite the beauty pageant expected in Austin to tune up for Tuscaloosa.

Casagrande: Jalen Milroe’s cake baked, but real test looms

Back in the current SEC, the locals looked sharp unveiling new-look offenses.

Both Alabama and Auburn played turnover-free, nearly penalty-free ball on a day known for growing pains.

The first Auburn drive was the perfect introduction to Hugh Freeze ball after a cold winter of the Bryan Harsin era. They moved fast and flexed the versatility of the contrasting QBs who combined to score on the first five possessions of the afternoon.

Allowing UMass to knife through the Tiger defense on its first touch was the blemish but the Minutemen wouldn’t return to the end zone until the fourth quarter.

For context, UMass was dead last in several preseason full-FBS rankings so the grain of salt is necessary.

MTSU entered with a little more cache after beating Miami a year ago but offered little resistance to what appeared to be a re-energized Alabama. There had been whispers of an improved mindset in Tuscaloosa this season and nothing disproved that talk on opening night.

RELATED: Casagrande: Jalen Milroe’s cake baked, but real test looms

And while Jalen Milroe was efficient and explosive in a five-TD performance as the starting quarterback, the competition is about tick up a few gears. A few cross-field throws, for example, found their target against MTSU but probably took longer to reach the destination than will be available against elite defenses.

“No disrespect to these guys,” Saban said in no-offense mode Saturday night. “They have a good team, they do a good job of coaching and they present a lot of problems for you. But we’re going to have to separate against a little different caliber of guy in the future.”

Context is also important.

A year ago, Alabama looked well-oiled and ready for revenge scoring on its first nine possessions of a 55-0 beating of Utah State. The first cracks in a flawed foundation were exposed a week later when it swaggered into Austin but barely escaped with a 20-19 win over Texas.

That one was played at Big 12 primetime, but the return game in Tuscaloosa won’t get the pre-noon treatment. A 6 p.m. CT kickoff on ESPN will have these two powers on centerstage with no room for Week 1 jitters.

Auburn, meanwhile, will travel to the complete opposite pole of what’s still considered Power 5 football. A bedtime-testing 9:30 p.m. kickoff in the carcass of the Pac-12 pits the Tigers with the Cal Bears, soon to join the Pacific wing of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

What Auburn will find in Berkley is a stadium that won’t bring the same juice as Saturday’s Jordan-Hare record crowd of 88,043. They’ll have to pack their own motivation in the non-conference matchup that won’t likely generate buzz organically. The Bears are coming off a 58-21 win at North Texas after a third straight losing season. After that, another tune-up comes in a visit from Samford before things get real with a Week 4 trip to College Station.

We’ll know more by then.

But for now, Alabama and Auburn hit the softballs presented in Week 1 and that’s all one could ask.

But for real, Colorado

I know Deion Sanders took pleasure dancing on the graves of the haters after what’s still a stunning win over TCU. But honestly, who could have expected a completely transfused program that went 1-11 last year would beat the returning national finalist on the road?

Playing its star player, Travis Hunter, iron-man style in near triple-digit temperatures with a team that’s never played a live game together. Truly, this is a 1-of-1 scenario that’s only possible in the 2023 version of college football. For a sport that separates itself from the professional version with its quirky charm, the 45-42 win in Fort Worth takes it to another level.

Goodman: Should Auburn have hired Deion Sanders?

The transfer portal repopulated a Colorado program that’s had one full-season winning record since 2005. I remember feeling bad for the Buffalos when the 2023 schedule opened with a team that played (participated, kinda) in January’s national title game.

Local influence for Buffs

There was another degree of intrigue when Sanders hired a few coaches with local ties. For the defensive coordinator job, Alabama DB coach and former Auburn player Charles Kelly got the call. And to coach the defensive tackles, ex-Tide assistant Sal Sunseri left his special assistant to Saban job for Boulder.

They had to gameplan for a TCU offense that included former Alabama players like RB Trey Sanders, WR JoJo Earle and offensive lineman Tommy Brockermeyer. All three saw the field as Sanders scored three touchdowns on 15 carries while Earle caught one pass for 16 yards.

Colorado’s influx of transfers included former Alabama safety Jahquez Robinson and LB Demouy Kennedy along with ex-Auburn WR Tar’Varish Dawson. Robinson got in the game but didn’t record stats while Dawson had three catches for nine yards in the Colorado win.

Quick hits

— Butch Jones, woof: The former Tennessee head coach who spent a few years in the Alabama back office hasn’t exactly upheld the Arkansas State tradition of sending coaches back to the big leagues. After seasons of 2-10 and 3-10, it somehow got uglier Saturday. Oklahoma apparently had something to prove after a down season and a 73-0 embarrassment of the Red Wolves would qualify. The Sooners scored on each of their first 10 possessions while outgaining the Sun Belt school 642-208. At some point, Arkansas State AD Jeff Purinton will have a decision to make. The former No. 2 in the Alabama athletics department who rose in the ranks after being hired to run Saban’s media relations certainly can’t like the trajectory of a program that served as a training ground for Freeze, Gus Malzahn and Harsin.

— Lane Kiffin left little doubt: Count Ole Miss among those who didn’t mess around on opening week. Consider the 73-7 beating of FCS Mercer a message on a day Ole Miss rolled up 667 yards. But like the others, prove it against a big boy to confirm the hypothesis.

— Sam Hartman proves Tyler Buchner’s decision wise: Though Tyler Buchner’s decision to leave Notre Dame and join OC Tommy Rees at Alabama doesn’t have him atop the depth chart, he had a better shot here than in South Bend. The arrival of Wake Forest transfer Sam Hartman served notice the Fighting Irish job wasn’t going Buchner’s way and the first two games showed why. Hartman completed 70.1% of his passes in wins over Navy and Tennessee State with six touchdowns and no interceptions. Buchner was the first off the bench after Milroe’s big night in a competition that was closer than what likely would have been in South Bend.

Play of the day

This diving interception by Travis Hunter was incredible, even more so when you consider he played more than 100 snaps on both sides of the ball.

Worst tweet of the week

This idiot got the Jimmy Buffett song name wrong.

Thanks for reading.

Big week to come.

Stay tuned.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.