It's hard to fathom, but the college football season has somehow already reached the halfway point.
There has been some great, some good, some not-so-good, and let's say - disappointing - performances over the season's first half.
Here's a look at some of the best, and worst, that the Big 12 has seen over the season's first seven weeks.
Best team: Kansas State
To some, K-State's 6-0 start is a bit of a surprise. It shouldn't be. The Wildcats were coming off a 10 win season and returned the bulk of their starters that included all their skill position players on offense, and their best player on defense to go with plenty of other game experience. Kansas State has simply picked off right where they left off.
They've also already avenged the worst loss on last year's schedule by beating Oklahoma on their home turf. Add to that a crushing victory over Miami and a road win at Iowa State and you have the best team in the league over the first half of the season.
Can they keep it up for 12 games? We'll see, but there's little reason to believe they won't barring any unforeseen injuries. After this week's trip to Morgantown, KSU finishes with three of the final five games on their home field with two road trips to TCU and Baylor. The young defense has looked solid for the most part, but they'll be put to a serious test over the coming weeks.
Worst team: Kansas
No real surprise here. The reclamation project in Lawrence was a big one and say what you want about Charlie Weis, but nobody expected him to come in and head to a bowl game in one season.
Even though there is still plenty of work yet to be done, the Jayhawks have shown signs of improvement. Outside of the second half against Kansas State, KU has been competitive in every game they've played which is something you couldn't say over the past two seasons. Even so, losing to Rice and Northern Illinois isn't something that should happen to any Big 12 team.
Biggest surprise: Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders walked through an easy nonconference schedule in beginning the year 4-0. Even though they did it in dominating fashion, there were still more than a few doubters especially after the way they played in their home loss to Oklahoma.
Texas Tech proved the following week, however, this isn't the same team we've seen in the first two seasons under Tommy Tuberville when they obliterated West Virginia. The surprising thing wasn't necessarily that they won, but the ease in which they did it.
Texas Tech also ended the curse Iowa State has had over them the past two seasons by winning in Ames.
The Red Raiders will need to avoid the second half letdown they suffered through last year, but they were rewarded for their strong start by opening at #17 in the season's first BCS poll. Not bad for a team that was one of only two Big 12 teams to miss out on a bowl game last season.
Biggest disappointment: Texas
The Longhorns were able to disguise the problems they were going to face down the road against Wyoming, New Mexico, and Ole Miss. Then came a narrow win over Oklahoma State after a controversial call that allowed UT to score their winning touchdown. They followed that up with a three-point loss to West Virginia - who may or may not be the team we thought they were - on their home field.
That raised a few question marks but then the ceiling completely collapsed after they were dismantled by Oklahoma for the second straight season. There were those that had already lost faith in Mack Brown before that game, but those voices have grown much louder this week.
The Longhorns defense has been abysmal giving up 450 yards and 32.5 points per game. While the offense has been better, it took a big step in the wrong direction last week.
The good news for Texas is the schedule now eases up a bit with OSU, West Virginia, and OU in the rear view mirror. There's still plenty of time for Texas to make up ground, but the season certainly hasn't started the way many expected.
The jury is still out: TCU
The Horned Frogs are off to a 5-1 start in their first season in the Big 12 but the truth is, we still don't know exactly how good this team is. The suffered a big loss when quarterback Casey Pachall decided to get his life in order rather than play football - a great decision for all those involved. The good news for TCU is that his replacement, Trevone Boykin, looks to be plenty talented enough to lead this team.
We'll find out much more about the Horned Frogs over the second half season has they plow through a brutal stretch of games that include Texas Tech, West Virginia, Kansas State, OU, and Texas.
First half MVP offense: Collin Klein
No offense to Geno Smith, but he has one blemish on his record that Collin Klein does not, a loss. Klein has been spectacular over the first half of the season in leading the Wildcats to a 6-0 start even if he does it without flashing mind-boggling statistics that others are putting up.
He's a perfect fit in Bill Snyder's offense. He takes care of the football. He essentially takes the entire offense, puts is on his back, and comes out on the other end with another win in his back pocket. There's not a player in the Big 12, maybe the country, that is more important to his team's success than Klein is to K-State.
He'll have a chance to go head-to-head with Smith for bragging rights in the Big 12 this weekend, but if we're picking an MVP based on the first six games of the season, Klein is the guy.
Co-first half MVP's defense: DeVonte Fields, TCU; Kerry Hyder, Texas Tech
Fields has gotten his career off to an unbelievable start. The freshman leads the Big 12 in sacks with 6.5 and tackles for-a-loss with 11.5. You can bet he'll have the attention of every offensive coordinator they face the rest of the league.
If he can continue his production against a schedule that gets much tougher the second half of the season, he very well may end up as the defensive player of the year in the Big 12. And to think he still has three more years to go in Fort Worth.
If you're looking for a reason why Tech's defense has been so good the first half of the season, look no further than the play of Hyder. His impact doesn't come as much from statistics (although he's fifth in the league in both sacks and TFL with 3 and 6.5, respectively) but rather how much better he makes those around him. Tech now has a guy upfront that teams have to be focused on stopping which frees up everyone else to make more plays.
Hyder may not receiver all the accolades he deserves, but take him out of Tech's lineup, and their defense would take a turn for the worse.
Best game: Texas 41 Oklahoma State 36
Whether or not you think Joe Bergeron fumbled at the goal line, this game had enough excitement to keep you on th edge of your seat for all four quarters. Neither team led by more than eight points all night and there were six lead changes with the final one coming on Bergeron's touchdown run with 36 seconds remaining which left many believing he fumbled before he crossed the goal line.
David Ash played his best game as a Longhorn throwing for 304 yards. Joseph Randle racked up 199 yards rushing on 25 carries for the Cowboys. There was over 1000 yards of total offense and the controversy at the end gives this one a leg up over West Virginia's three point win over Texas for the best game of the first-half.
Worst game: Oklahoma State 84 Savannah State 0.
Enough said.
Best single game performance, team: Oklahoma in their 63-21 win over Texas.
The Sooners outgained the Horns 677 to 289 and for a week at least, left the Texas program in a state of panic. Offense, defense, special teams, you name it, everything went the Sooners way. Had it not been for two late UT's touchdowns, the final score would have been even worse.
Best single game performance, individual: Geno Smith
Smith put together a season's worth of highlights all into one game against Baylor.
He finished the day 45 of 51 for 656 yards with eight touchdown passes. Sure, it came against a Bears' defense that has struggled stopping anyone, but those numbers would be hard to put up had WVU played against air.
That's one performance that will be tough to top.
Team trending up in the second half: Oklahoma
The Sooners got off to a slow start with a less than impressive win in the opener against UTEP and a five point loss at home to Kansas State. Since then, however, Oklahoma has looked like the team many thought they would be coming into the season.
The defense was rock solid in wins over Texas Tech and Texas the offense has been bolstered by help of junior college running back, Damien Williams.
The Sooners have the look of a team ready to run the table over the season's second half and they might just need to do it to have any shot at the Big 12 title. Even if OU goes undefeated the rest of the way, they'll need Kansas State to lose twice to claim an outright title given the Wildcats already hold the tiebreaker. But if this season has taught us anything, it's to expect the unexpected. Even with the success K-State has had thus far, odds are they aren't going to win out and if the last two weeks are any indication, expect OU to be right there at the end.
Team trending down in the second half: Baylor
The Bears offense has been fine in the season's first half, even without RGIII at the helm. It's the defense that continues to stink up the joint. In two Big 12 games thus far, Baylor's defense has given up a total of 119 points.
If they have any hopes of returning to a bowl game for the third straight season, that has to change and in a hurry. The offense simply can't be expected to keep up because at some point, it's going to break down as it did last week against TCU when Nick Florence tossed four interceptions to go along with two Baylor fumbles.
Somehow Baylor needs to find a minimum of three wins over their final seven games to qualify for the postseason and unless the defense shows some drastic improvements, those wins aren't going to be easy to come by.
