We’re continuing our countdown of the Big 12's top 25 players from the 2012 season. Here's more on my criteria for the list. You can take a peek at how the preseason list looked here.
The official list is locked away in a vault in an undisclosed location, but we'll be revealing one player a day moving forward.
On with the show ...
No. 19: Lache Seastrunk, RB, Baylor
2012 numbers: Carried the ball 131 times for 1,012 yards and seven touchdowns. Caught nine passes for 107 yards and a touchdown.
Most recent ranking: Seastrunk was unranked in our preseason list of the Big 12's top 25 players.
Making the case for Seastrunk: I felt a little silly continuing to champion Seastrunk's cause in midseason, wondering aloud why the superstar recruit couldn't seem to get many touches throughout the first half of the season, even as Baylor stumbled to a 0-4 record in the Big 12 and 3-4 overall. Jarred Salubi and Glasco Martin had been OK, but far from excellent. Looking back, I still don't quite understand how the Bears could have kept Seastrunk off the field after seeing what he was capable of doing late in the season. Seastrunk topped 135 yards in each of the Bears' final four games and rushed for 831 yards in the final six games of the season. Most impressive? He received fewer than 20 carries in all five of those games, but it was a far cry from early in the season, when he received seven carries or fewer in the first seven games of the year.
He made headlines in December when he announced his plans to win the Heisman next season, but it's not entirely out of the question. Seastrunk's irrelevance over the first seven games of the year is the only reason he's this low on the list. Once he became the Bears' starting running back, you could certainly argue he had a case as the Big 12's best player over the final six games of the year. What does he have in store for 2013? I can't wait to find out.
The rest of the list:
No. 20: Jake Knott, LB, Iowa State
No. 21: James Sims, RB, Kansas
No. 22: Aaron Colvin, CB, Oklahoma
No. 23: Josh Stewart, WR, Oklahoma State
No. 24: Nick Florence, QB, Baylor
