Another season is done, and the Crimson Tide/Nick Saban/South-Eastern Conference domination - or, is that dynasty? - continues. Here are my picks of the year:
Team of the Year: Impossible to go past Alabama. Their BCS National Championship performance solidified what most people had already concluded: that this football team, stacked with talent and coached by one of the greatest perfectionists in the great history of the game, is the best of the best at the moment. If you want to know how good you are, go play Alabama. It's that simple.
Player of the Year: Impossible to go past Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M). Or is that Johnny Football? Or Johnny Heisman? Whatever you want to call him, you also must call him the first freshman to ever win college football's most prestigious individual award. Whatever else happens, Manziel will be famous for claiming the Heisman at his first opportunity. His performance in the Cotton Bowl - 500+ yards in the rout of Oklahoma - showed that there's no Heisman Hangover. Just wait for next year...
Biggest Surprise: As a USC fan, this hurts to say. Undoubtedly, Notre Dame. From un-ranked and basically an afterthought amongst the Oklahoma's, Alabama's and USC's of the college football world, Brian Kelly's squad nearly pulled off one of the greatest seasons in history. Except they ran into that Alabama buzz saw on Monday night in Miami. Even with that shellacking at the hands of Saban's men, this season was an incredible transformation for a team and a program many thought would never reclaim it's former glory. Instead, it's fair to say that Brian Kelly is doing exactly that: making Notre Dame relevant again.
Biggest Disappointment: As a USC fan, this also hurts to say. Without question, USC. National championships and Heisman's were the order of the day over the summer, with returning QB Matt Barkley, surely a #1 NFL Draft pick, and a corps of incredible receivers coming back. The Trojans had come out from under the shadow of their Bowl ban, and with a stacked team, seemed likely to roll through the PAC-12 and onto the National Championship. Except that the defense was terrible, Barkley was erratic at times, and UCLA were the best team in Southern California this year. Oh, and they lost the Sun Bowl - not the Bowl destination anyone had in mind for Lane Kiffin's men prior to the start of this year - to a 6-7 Georgia Tech team who needed an NCAA waiver to get into the post-season. Lane Kiffin was lucky not to be fired. His father, defensive coordinator, Monte, seemingly went before he was pushed.
Defensive Player Of The Year: Manti Te'O (Notre Dame). The Fighting Irish linebacker was a man possessed in the middle of Bob Diaco's defense this year. He came to symbolise the resurgence of Notre Dame football under Brian Kelly, and was a Heisman finalist in a competition normally dominated by offensive players. A rough BCS National Championship might see his stock plummet, but the body of his work this entire season is, by anyone's estimation, impressive.
Offensive Player Of The Year: Johnny Manziel, again. No one in college football - not this season, certainly, and maybe not ever - managed to run an offensive show like Johnny Football. He ran and passed and generally confused the heck out of defenses on a regular basis. The scary thing is he's only a freshman, and has three years of college eligibility still left to come. If Kevin Sumlin's staff can ensure he doesn't take too many hits, the way Denard Robinson has, watch out...
Coach Of The Year: Bill Snyder (Kansas State). Tough to go past Brian Kelly for his resurrection of Notre Dame football or Nick Saban for the another National Championship, but the Kansas State Wildcats, led by their own quarterback star, Collin Klein, were a loss away from playing in the National Championship themselves. Those dreams ended in Baylor, but Snyder's work in making the Wildcats a legitimate national power after years in the shadows of other Big XII teams should not go unnoticed. Klein played a large part, but Snyder's also a very, very good coach. It's not the first time he's done this sort of work in Manhattan, Kansas, either.
Conference Of The Year: The SEC. No contest. The seventh straight BCS National Championship for the South-Eastern Conference. This wasn't just a win, but a shellacking of what people thought was a good football team in Notre Dame - a team that some thought could beat the Tide. The SEC also produced the first freshman Heisman Trophy winner in Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel. Pretty nice double, that one.
And that's that - 2012 in a nutshell. See you after the off-season!!
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