There’s an old saying in baseball.

“You see something new every day.”

As someone who spent time working for a Triple-A team one summer and basically watching or listening to every Chicago Cubs game every other summer, I’m not entirely sure how true that is. But it is a fun saying that sort of pokes at the belief that we see the same things throughout a marathon regular season.

I say that because in college football, I think it’s a lot more applicable. A shorter regular season and bigger rosters have something to do with that. The chance of an unexpected breakout performance is always on the table, even if we’re past the halfway point of the season.

So yeah, we saw some new things in Week 10:

Alabama: Don’t overlook this defense

As odd as it was, the defense was considered where Alabama was most vulnerable. Um, about that. All the Tide did was pitch a shutout and hold the Tigers to 12 rushing yards. Quinnen Williams led an Alabama defense that looked like it was tired of hearing about how this was an offensive-minded team. That game felt like Tiger was just waiting to explode if it could have gotten just 1 touchdown. That didn’t happen, and really, it never felt that close. If that’s what the post-bye week Alabama defense looks like, let’s just give the trophy to Nick Saban now.

Arkansas: The Kelly Bryant competition gets more interesting

When the former Clemson quarterback announced that he was transferring, I think the first two choices were obvious. One was Arkansas. As we know, he visited and met the guy who recruited him to Clemson, Chad Morris. We also know that Bryant visited Mizzou and UNC. But this week, the other obvious candidate got a visit from Bryant — Auburn.

The Tigers are a natural fit schematically, but the question becomes whether Bryant would go there if Jarrett Stidham delays an NFL Draft announcement. Bryant doesn’t want to compete with an established multi-year starter. Perhaps it’s just him doing his due diligence, but to me, Arkansas should still be considered the favorite.

Auburn: The Tigers aren’t dead in the water when they’re trailing

That was news to me. Not only did Auburn rally from 10 down in the final 5 minutes, but it did so against a quality team. Shocking, I know. Jarrett Stidham deserves a lot of credit for staying in the game and not letting a frustrating start with boo birds tell the story of the afternoon. And if there was a better throw from Stidham than this all year, I haven’t seen it.

The Tigers are done in terms of the division race, but they’ll have zero pressure on them against Georgia and Alabama. Maybe that’s what sparked that late rally. Whatever the case, Auburn is going bowling!

Florida: We’ve got a quarterback controversy

I was impressed with the development of Feleipe Franks, and was surprised that the Gators were only 6.5-point favorites against a Mizzou team that hadn’t won an SEC game. I was wrong on so many levels. What I was right about was saying all offseason that I thought Kyle Trask was going to make things interesting in Gainesville if he gets his chance. Sure enough, he replaced Franks and played well. Now, Dan Mullen said after Saturday’s dud that he’ll have to make a decision if a drastic decision need to be made. My how things have changed in a hurry.

Georgia: The ground game does have some 2017 in it

D’Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield had hopes of becoming the 2018 version of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. They hadn’t done that. But Saturday? Yeah, you could have told me that was Chubb and Michel and I would have believed you. Both Swift and Holyfield were extremely effective picking up chunks of yardage, and hitting the home runs that had been missing all year. Go figure that the ground game was that dominant against the nation’s top scoring defense on a day in which the Dawgs’ banged up offensive line lost 2 more key contributors.

Kentucky: The defense has a breaking point

The Wildcats allowed season highs in rushing yards, total yards and points against a dominant Georgia offense. The ride that group was on with Josh Allen and Kash Daniel was special, but Saturday, they were on their heels for much of the afternoon. They allowed not 1, but 2 100-yard rushers, which is basically a death sentence against a team like Georgia. The Cats couldn’t get off the field. Even that Justin Fields conversion on 3rd-and-9 was costly. Georgia was easily the best and most balanced offense that Kentucky has seen. By game’s end, it looked like the Cats finally met their match.

LSU: Tiger Stadium apparently doesn’t rattle everyone

To be clear, I think pretty much every other team in America would have at the very least been in for a down-to-the-wire game on Saturday night in Baton Rouge. That atmosphere looked second to none. We saw Georgia and Mississippi State get overwhelmed by it. But even after Alabama’s bizarre ending to that opening series, it was clear that the environment wasn’t going to prevent the Tide from rolling. You couldn’t have drawn up a more hostile setting for unbeaten, unproven Alabama. But if that was a “rattled” team, 29-0 certainly didn’t reflect that.

Mississippi State: Maybe Nick Fitzgerald has this offense figured out

It’s been interesting watching the learning curve of Joe Moorhead’s offense. It’s two-fold. Figuring out the best ways to use Fitzgerald was part of it, but ultimately, the guy still has to be able to be somewhat accurate. For the second straight week, he was just that. He threw for as many touchdown passes as he had in the 6 games combined following his 2018 debut. More important, he completed 60 percent of his throws for the second consecutive week. When was the last time Fitzgerald did that? Mid-October of last year. Yeah, it was lesser competition, but Fitzgerald was making throws that would have been completed against virtually anyone.

Mizzou: The Tigers are actually capable of beating a ranked team … and destroying them?

No, I didn’t see the Tigers’ 21-point victory in The Swamp coming and neither did you. An 0-9 mark against ranked foes with Drew Lock as the starter was holding me back from that, as was Mizzou’s winless start to SEC play. But Lock delivered one of the most impressive performances of his career. Having Emanuel Hall back looked like a blessing for the senior quarterback. And by the way, what a win for Barry Odom. It would have been awfully tough for him to think about an 0-5 start to SEC play. Getting on the board and doing so in such convincing fashion was a much-needed sight after the devastating Kentucky loss.

Ole Miss: Those defensive strides were short-lived

I say that loosely because allowing an average of 32 points in consecutive games is pretty lackluster for most teams. But for Ole Miss, usually you’ll take that. What you won’t take is an inconsistent offense coming into Oxford and hanging 48 points. That can’t happen. You feel bad for an Ole Miss offense that simply has too much pressure on it to score on every possession. Putting up 44 at home should be enough. The Rebels’ inability to tackle in space is as frustrating of a weakness as any SEC team has.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks can win a shootout after all

I did a little digging and found that South Carolina had never allowed 44 points in a win. But it makes sense when you think about it. Historically, the Gamecocks are not a shootout team. Even with Steve Spurrier, that wasn’t exactly their identity. It’s still not their identity, but credit Jake Bentley for dicing up a porous Ole Miss defense and getting South Carolina another win when it trailed by double digits in the second half.

Tennessee: The running game issues are still there

Eeeeeeek. Beating Charlotte by 11 at home isn’t great, and neither is failing to score a point in the final 3 quarters … against Charlotte …at home. A lot of that was Tennessee’s inability to run the football. With or without Trey Smith, there’s no reason for the Vols to be held to 20 yards against Charlotte … at home. That’s not what SEC teams are supposed to do. Fortunately, the Vols defense is doing all the heavy lifting right now. But man, how is it that no Tennessee player has rushed for 70 yards in a game since mid-September. Woof.

Texas A&M: Kellen Mond has regressed from where he was at in September

I hate to admit it because I was so ready for Mond to be the SEC’s next great quarterback after watching him carve up Clemson. But after watching Mond struggle at key points of Saturday’s heartbreaking loss to Auburn — that interception was his worst of the year — it looks like he’s not nearly as far along in Jimbo Fisher’s system as I once thought. It wasn’t just the late pick that defined Mond’s night. The Aggies relied on Trayveon Williams all game and clearly Fisher was frustrated with Mond. The game looked like it sped up for him, which is the opposite of what I thought we’d be saying about his game in November.

Vanderbilt: Derek Mason thinks even more of Ke’Shawn Vaughn than I do

I’ve used this platform to praise Vaughn a couple times this year, so allow me to do so again. I think he’s providing a big play element that the Commodores simply didn’t have in Ralph Webb’s final year in Nashville. The Illinois transfer has been everything Mason could have hoped for. But man, this is some comparison:

I’d argue Elliott is still more talented and versatile than Vaughn, but the Dallas Cowboys star has always benefitted from running behind some outstanding offensive lines. Still, Vaughn is setting himself up to be one of the SEC’s top returning skill players if he sticks around Nashville for his senior season.