Texas Longhorns

Here's a few other things we learned over the course of the 2011 season in the Big 12.

On Wednesday, we looked back on what we learned during the bowl season.

1. The Heisman isn't what you thought it was. The best player on the best team? Not anymore. This was no Mark Ingram Heisman. The 2011 Heisman race restored the faith of many in the award which, simply put, went to the best player in college football -- Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. He carried the Bears to 10 wins, tying a school record, and doing things no one ever thought possible at Baylor. Like, for instance, a third-place finish in one of the toughest years in Big 12 history. And, you know, winning that stiff-arm trophy thing.

2. The 2011 title just wasn't meant to be for Oklahoma. The first loss was perhaps the most painful. A two-hour weather delay preceded a shocking loss to 28-point underdog Texas Tech that all but ended the "Chase for 8," the first national title since 2000 for the Sooners. It also sparked unrest in the locker room after controversial comments from linebacker Travis Lewis, who wondered aloud why some of his teammates didn't play injured when he did. He later apologized to teammates in a meeting, but the comments set something of a tone for the rest of the season. They didn't shy away from preseason expectations, but RG3 thrust himself back into the Heisman picture with a virtuoso game against a vulnerable Sooners' secondary that proved a weakness by season's end. That was aided by Ryan Broyles' torn ACL that ultimately handcuffed Oklahoma's offense. The Sooners managed just three points in a humbling five-touchdown beatdown in Stillwater from rival Oklahoma State, before scoring a late touchdown in garbage time. The Sooners will chase another title in 2012 with Landry Jones at the helm, but this season began with promise and a No. 1 ranking. It ended in the Insight Bowl. That's not good enough at Oklahoma, in a year like 2011 that had so much more potential.

3. Texas A&M and Missouri are nothing if not bold. Texas A&M is -- voluntarily, barring something sinister -- joining a division that just had three teams finish in the top 5. Missouri is putting its Texas recruiting pipeline at risk to join the SEC East, which is littered with sleeping giants (Florida, Tennessee) that are struggling for the time being, but still boasted two teams in the top 20 (Georgia, South Carolina) in 2011. Texas A&M knows the SEC is its best chance to surpass Texas' program, an opportunity to offer recruits in Texas something the Longhorns can't. We'll see if it pays off. Missouri wanted out of a tumultuous Big 12 that nearly left it without a home last summer before patching itself back together. Now, it'll play its games a long way from Columbia, Mo. Will the moves be worth it? Time will tell.

As quickly as it arrived, the Big 12 season is gone.

Alas, here's a look at the 10 moments we'll remember most from the 2011 season. These aren't necessarily the best or worst moments, but simply that: memorable. When we look back on 2011, this is what will stick out.

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The bowl season is over, and it's time to pass out a few awards.

Best offensive player: Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma State. Blackmon went nuts against Stanford after the Cowboys were shut out in the first quarter against Stanford. His first two catches went for touchdowns, and he finished with 186 yards on eight grabs and his third three-touchdown game of his career. That was the first time he'd done that since the Tulsa game in 2010, the third game of the season.

Second-best offensive player: Terrance Ganaway, RB, Baylor. Ganaway ended his career in style, taking plenty of heat off his Heisman-winning quarterback, Robert Griffin III. He scored five touchdowns and ran for 200 yards, leading the way for three Bears 100-yard rushers in the 67-56 win over Washington in the Alamo Bowl.

Best defensive player: Jamell Fleming, CB, Oklahoma. Passing? I think not, Iowa. Matched up with NFL-bound, Skycam-attacked Marvin McNutt, Fleming made seven tackles, returned an interception 21 yards and broke up three passes. Well done.

Best team performance: Oklahoma State. The Cowboys got the Big 12's best win of the entire season, knocking off a solid Stanford team and handing Andrew Luck a loss in his final game as a Cardinal. Maybe they got lucky with a missed 35-yard field goal attempt to force overtime, but the Cowboys played well after a shaky first quarter and beat the nation's No. 4 team on a neutral field. Well done.

Best play: Robert Griffin III's post-Heisman "Heisman moment." He somehow backpedalled out of a handful of Washington tacklers, escaped outside and galloped to the pylon, diving into the end zone as he took a big hit before scoring. A big-time play from the Heisman winner for a 24-yard score.

Craziest play: North Carolina's Bryn Renner whipped a strike to Dwight Jones, but a hit jarred it loose. Somehow, it ended up on Jones' shoulder and rolled across his back, staying there long enough for Missouri LB Zaviar Gooden to sprint over and slide in to intercept the pass before it hit the ground.

Scariest play: Marvin McNutt, WR, Iowa. McNutt was minding his own business in the Iowa huddle. Then the Skycam at Sun Devil Stadium came crashing down and sent McNutt into a panic. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but it was memorable incident. The camera was grounded for the Fiesta Bowl later in the week.

Best out-of-nowhere performance: Colton Chelf, WR, Oklahoma State. Starter Tracy Moore was reportedly suspended, and Chelf filled the void well. He caught just 16 balls in 12 games, but hauled in five for 97 yards in the win over Stanford, including a 24-yarder in overtime that was ruled a touchdown before being reversed and giving way to a game-winning field goal.

Worst performance: Kansas State. It was shocking to see. The Wildcats made too many early mistakes that they hadn't made all year. There was a fumble to give Arkansas an easy three points, a handful of dropped passes, a wave of penalties and an ill-advised punt to Joe Adams that swung the game in favor of the Hogs. Not good, and K-State didn't give itself a chance in the 29-16 loss.

Best handling of distractions: Texas A&M had to deal with the loss of senior offensive lineman Joey Villavisencio, who died in a car crash on his way home for Christmas. It fired coach Mike Sherman earlier. Interim coach Tim DeRuyter left for Fresno State, but stayed to coach the bowl game. The team was prepping for a move to the SEC and playing its bowl game in the home of its new coach, Kevin Sumlin. The Aggies, though, played pretty well against Northwestern and controlled most of the game in the 33-22 win.

Best atmosphere: Cotton Bowl. For a second consecutive year, this bowl takes the cake. K-State and Arkansas fans absolutely packed Cowboys Stadium and cheered loudly from an hour before the game through the entire matchup. A big-time atmosphere for what should be a big-time game.

RecruitingNation airs at 3 p.m. ET today on ESPNU, and national analyst Craig Haubert and senior national analyst Tom Luginbill will discuss the new No. 1 team in the class rankings.

That team?

The Alabama Crimson Tide.

After landing five-star safety Landon Collins and four-star athlete Cyrus Jones at the Under Armour All-America Game last week, the Tide leaped ahead of Texas to become the nation’s No. 1 class.

Haubert and Luginbill will discuss other movers and shakers in the top 25 and reflect on recent commitments from players like Channing Ward, Barry Sanders Jr. and Jordan Jenkins. The analysts will also take a look at players whose stock increased after the recent national and regional all-star games.

RecruitingNation writers will contribute with a look at what's still on the board at Michigan and how USC is dealing with sanctions.

Things were a lot different this time a year ago.

Oklahoma looked ready to assume the role of preseason No. 1, and did. The Sooners were the prohibitive favorites to win their first BCS National Championship since 2000.

"We have high expectations, and I don’t shy away from them," Stoops said in August. "My feeling is it is about time. We need to win one."

Don't look for any bold proclamations from anyone in the Big 12 this year. Oklahoma stumbled early and late, losing three games and finishing the season with an unremarkable Insight Bowl win.

Oklahoma State emerged as the only legitimate title contender in the Big 12 as 2011's dark season dragged on. Even the Cowboys' chances were doomed on a chilly Friday night in Ames, Iowa in November, a day after a plane crash killed four people, including head women's basketball coach Kurt Budke.

No one other team was close.

And if any Big 12 team is going to be close in 2012, it'll have to overachieve. Oklahoma enters the season as the most likely candidate, but it'll probably begin the season on the back half of the top 10 at best, outside of it at worst. Of course, the last time Oklahoma won a national championship, it began the season at No. 19. The way the Sooners are built in 2012 requires Landry Jones to string together 13 performances without a big mistake in a big spot. He's started for three seasons, and given plenty of reason to doubt his ability to do so. Will that change in 2012, when he's a senior, four-year starter? It'll have to for Oklahoma to reach the title game.

Oklahoma State? Good luck winning the Big 12, much less a national championship. A first-year quarterback's only won the league twice, and the Cowboys have a three-way quarterback derby to replace Brandon Weeden set for the spring. Justin Blackmon? You don't replace a two-time Biletnikoff Award winner in one season.

Kansas State could start the season in the top 15 at best, but they'd need a lot more Bill Snyder magic to climb back into the national elite. The core of the team returns, with quarterback Collin Klein and linebacker Arthur Brown headlining the team, but can Klein handle another 317 carries? Can Kansas State improve upon its need to go 8-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less? It can't duplicate that kind of success.

Conference movers haven't made a big splash in their first year in new leagues, but not many have joined new leagues as conference champions returning most of the team's major contributors. Could TCU and West Virginia change the trend?

Here's guessing a more difficult Big 12 schedule trips both up in Year 1 inside their new digs.

Texas? The Longhorns won eight games in 2011, but the road from winning eight to 12 is by far the most difficult, and it isn't easily traversed without a savvy, accurate, big-armed quarterback leading the way. Texas has a lot of work to do in that area.

The odds are good that the SEC's reign continues for a seventh season.

Maybe it doesn't, but it'll take a Big 12 team overachieving to do it.

The season's over, but our look back is just beginning. Here's five things we learned this year in the Big 12.

1. In the national title debate, losses mean a lot more than wins. Oklahoma State deserved its shot at LSU. Period. It was close, yes. Making LSU beat Alabama a second time was unfair to the Tigers, who already waded through one of the most difficult schedules in college football history, dispatching the Big East and Pac-12 champions, who also won BCS bowls. It also beat the national champion and SEC East champion. But OSU deserved a shot, based on its total résumé. Voters, though, weren't willing to look beyond the one awful loss (in double overtime at Iowa State) and focus on the five wins over teams in the final BCS top 25 of the regular season (Alabama only had two). They also looked over the seven wins over bowl teams with winning records (the Crimson Tide had three). Do I think Alabama was a better team? Yes, I do. But in the current system, Oklahoma State deserved its chance, not a second chance for Alabama that rendered the Nov. 5 "Game of the Century" meaningless. It also produced a snoozer of a title game and deprived us of definitively settling the year-long conference dispute, which might be the most frustrating aspect of the entire debate.

2. A whole lot of points are a whole lot of fun to watch. Bad defense? Yeah, there was some of that. There was also a whole lot of good offense. Baylor's Robert Griffin III only accounted for one touchdown and the Bears still hung 67 points in a win over Washington -- a bowl record for all of a week before West Virginia posted 70 in the Orange Bowl. Baylor had three 100-yard rushers and Griffin wasn't one of them, even though he had arguably the most memorable run of his season, a Houdini act of slipping out of a handful of tacklers and outrunning the Washington offense to the pylon, taking a hit as he dove into the end zone. The game drew a 5.1 rating, and more than 5 million people watched, making it the fifth most-watched non-BCS bowl in history.

3. Texas looks on its way back up. The whispers were out there: Was 5-7 the beginning of the end of Mack Brown's tenure at Texas? Had he lost it? The problems were plentiful throughout the 2010 season, but the Longhorns bounced back (sort of) in 2011 and fixed many of them. The 21-10 win over Cal was mostly a four-hour advertisement for Texas' best asset: the Manny Diaz-led defense. An enormous, and biggest, void at quarterback remains, but this year the running game was much improved, and will continue to get better in 2012. Malcolm Brown will mature and Johnathan Gray will join him and Joe Bergeron in the backfield. The defense was the Big 12's best and should reclaim that title in 2012. Texas isn't back yet, but 2010 was not the beginning of the end for the burnt orange.

4. The top two teams are all that separates the Big 12 and SEC. Assume all you'd like, but compare the bowl records: The Big 12 was 6-2. The SEC was 6-3, with a win over and loss to itself in the title game. The Big 12 finished 33-5 (.868) in nonconference play, the best mark of any conference since the SEC in 1997. The SEC finished 47-8 (.855). The SEC earned all the headlines by putting LSU and Alabama in the title game, but the difference between the two leagues isn't very wide. They met on the field just twice this season: Arkansas beat both Texas A&M and Kansas State. The Big 12 beat teams like Stanford, TCU, Florida State, Washington, Northern Illinois and California along the way. The league's top five teams returning in 2012 went 19-1 in nonconference play. Four of the five losses came via expatriates-to-be Texas A&M and Missouri, as well as Iowa State and Kansas, who finished in the bottom three in the Big 12 standings. The league was deep, and unfortunately, didn't get many chances to prove it against the SEC.

5. The Big 12 is getting two really, really good teams in 2012. If you didn't watch, you should have. West Virginia put on an absolute show in the Orange Bowl, beating Clemson by a rousing 70-33 final that included 400 yards of passing from one Geno Smith (you'll get to know him better in 2012) and a 99-yard fumble return for a touchdown that featured a review that could have resulted in a touchdown for either team. TCU? All the BCS-snubbed Horned Frogs did was play an uninspired game against underrated Louisiana Tech (who beat, ahem, SEC member Ole Miss by 20) and win by a touchdown. But they're on their way in 2012, and both could win the Big 12. Next year, the league will have three conference champions, and if you include new members, went 8-2 in bowl games. Of course, if you subtract the departing members, it went 6-2, so who's counting?