We enter every season with knowns and unknowns. That's true whether we're talking about teams, coaches or players. Entities change -- and 18- to 22-year-olds can change wildly -- and how much they change ends up defining how and what we remember from a given year.
Take, for instance, a list of college football's best players. In August, that's going to feature the proven entities -- last year, it listed known quantities like Houston's Ed Oliver, Clemson linemen Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence and Clelin Ferrell, running backs Bryce Love, Jonathan Taylor and Damien Harris. And while those players lived up to expectations, the list looked a lot different in December.