The smoke from Week 13 (and another fantasy season) is beginning to clear, and plenty of things that seemed clear in the beginning of the summer have been confirmed in late November.
Specifically, Case Keenum is the nation's best fantasy footballer, rebounding from a lost 2010 to lead his Cougars to an undefeated regular season. Trent Richardson is among the nation's top backs, and it was simply a matter of time before Ron Zook and Dennis Erickson were found to be inadequate by their respective employers.
However what makes college fantasy football such a great diversion from the real world is the amount of variables and surprises that emerge over the course of the season. With surprises in mind, here are six that jump out as we reflect back upon another wild and wooly campaign.
Anyone who tells you they don't like surprises has probably come out to find his car towed one too many times, thus we're going to focus on surprises of the positive variety. Because this past weekend was a time to give thanks, and we'll save our disappointments for the airing of the grievances portion of Festivus in a few weeks.
1. Montee Ball
Yes, we knew he was good, really good. And with the departure of John Clay we knew he'd see plenty of carries. However James White's presence made Ball's fantasy prospects a bit of an unknown. 1860 yards and 34 touchdowns later the only "unknown" is why he's such a forgotten name among Heisman voters.
2. Collin Klein
Dude threw it 18 times in 2010, hardly an effective sample size. Of course he did run it enough to give us an idea that he could make a little noise when he decided to tuck it and run in 2011. But we didn't foresee a season where Klein would outperform the likes of Kellen Moore and Brandon Weeden.
3. Jordan White
When White was granted a sixth year this summer I took note of the news, pondered it for about .5 seconds and then moved on. "He'll help with the departure of Nunez...I think I'll have Potbelly for lunch."
128 catches for 1645 yards and 16 scores later, we've got the nation's top fantasy receiver for 2012.
4. Terrance Ganaway
Even more pleasant than this one-time Houston Cougars' season of over 1200 yards from scrimmage and 15 scores is his performance on Saturday, in Championship Week: 246 rushing yards and two scores.
5. The Oklahoma State offense
We knew they'd be good. But the explosive, score 35 points in about 20 seconds offense was overwhelming at times, and their status as the top BCS offense of 2012 doesn't even do them justice.
If not for that Friday night in Ames...
6. The top BCS fantasy defense was...
NC State? The Wolfpack? Seriously? Depending on your scoring system they might have been.
Moving forward we'll do plenty of looking back, but more looking forward. Bowl season, early entrants and Signing Day. One season just rolls right into the next.