re: Biggest “One-Hit Wonders” this century, per 247Sports

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are we still posting this for dramatic effect and ingoring the game went to 7 OTs?

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Remember when bama gave up 94 points in 8 quarters in 2019?

Ay caramba

The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies' room.

MEH !

LSU with three natty's this century. Only two of the teams listed actually won natty's. I mean every season is a one hit season. It's the only season played that year. So kinda dumb all in all.

Orgeron and Chizik representing

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I'm not sure 247Sports knows what a "One Hit Wonder" really is. Several of these are quite a stretch.

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Shhh. You're crushing the bama troll. Uhh, on second thought, carry on.

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But I often forget about them.

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Thats a lie.

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There's nothing "overnight" about going from double digit wins to some more double digit wins. 8-5 to 15-0? Sure. 10+ wins to some more? Not really.

Again, this seems to have been based on some bad criteria. You cant say someone is "on the cusp" then say it happened overnight, pretty much contradictory statement there

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While the graphic is amusing, I agree it doesn't make any sense. If LSU's 2018 team had been .500 and the 2020 team also been .500, I could sort of see the logic, but the 2018 team finished top 10.

Also not sure on that time frame, so I looked up the original article it came from. Here's the blurb with LSU:

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Time will tell if the Tigers truly belong in this category in the same light as some of the other teams included, but rarely has college football seen a defending national champion fall as hard as LSU did from 2019 to 2020. While the Tigers had high hopes for the 2019 season after bringing in Joe Brady as passing game coordinator, few predicted quarterback Joe Burrow and the LSU’s offense to become the revelation that it was. SEC records were shattered left and right as the Tigers plowed their way to the sport's ultimate crown, and Burrow would ultimately go No. 1 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2020 NFL Draft. Alas, Burrow was far from alone in exiting Baton Rouge that offseason -- numerous other contributors would go pro or opt out in 2020, while both Brady and defensive coordinator Dave Aranda left for other opportunities. The Tigers would open their national title defense by surrendering more than 600 passing yards to Mississippi State in a season-opening 45-35 home loss, and never broke above .500 en route to a 5-5 finish.

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Here's 2012 Texas A&M:

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One could argue that the phrase "generational talent" has lost its value given how frequently it is tossed around today, but it's certainly no exaggeration when describing the things that quarterback Johnny Manziel did on the football field for Texas A&M. Entering the 2012 season -- A&M's first in the SEC -- the Aggies were coming off a modest 7-6 finish and hadn't finished with double-digits in the win column since 1998. That, of course, set the stage for Manziel and the Aggies to make a grand entrance into their new home as the eventual Heisman-winner dazzled from start to end en route to an 11-2 record and an AP No. 5 finish. That journey was complete with a memorable win at top-ranked and eventual national-champion Alabama. But while A&M entered the 2013 season as the No. 7 team in the country, the success from 2012 wasn't to be sustained -- A&M went 8-4 the following regular season and wouldn't post another AP Top 10 finish until this past fall, when the Aggies checked in at No. 4 in the final rankings.

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2010 Auburn:

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There are a few Auburn football seasons that could probably qualify -- or at least be considered -- as a "one hit wonder" since the turn of the century, but the 2010 season stands tall above the rest, thanks to Cam Newton. Expectations were modest at best on the plains entering 2010 after the Tigers went 5-7 in 2008 and 8-4 in 2009, but the arrival of Newton from Blinn College, as fate would have it, gave Auburn the ultimate cheat code en route to going undefeated and capturing a national title with a Heisman-winner taking the snaps. Auburn led the SEC in almost every major statistical category on offense that fall, checking in atop the league in scoring offense, total offense, rushing offense and pass efficiency among other areas. But after Newton left that offseason and became the No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft, things went back to looking much like the way they had previously been -- the Tigers went 8-5 in 2011 and 3-9 in 2012 -- before a regime change in 2013 had Auburn improbably competing for a national title once again that fall.

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Original article:

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As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. And while college football has its blue bloods, even the greatest dynasties must at some point come to terms with the inevitable changing of the guard. Granted, the staying power at the top for some programs lasts far longer than others, as do the lulls that almost every program encounters at least once.

For some schools, dominance lasts for decades. In other cases, success comes and goes in the form of nothing more than a "one-hit wonder" season, so to speak, with teams that nobody expected to contend for a championship suddenly skyrocketing the polls only to come crashing back down in the blink of an eye.

Just two years ago in 2019, we saw LSU surpass all expectations by emerging as an unstoppable juggernaut en route to a national championship, only for all of that to unravel as key contributors departed in time for 2020. And if history tells us anything, the 2019 Tigers won't be the last example of that either.

So going back to the start of the 2000s, which teams check in as the top one-hit wonders of college football? It's not a simple question to answer, but we identified -- in chronological order -- 10 teams this century that rose from mediocrity or being on the cusp of the next level to title-contender seemingly overnight, only for it be a short-lived stay in the upper echelon of the sport.

While there's no exact science to this list, we did establish some ground rules: Any "one-hit wonder" season had to see the said team reach double-digit victories, and the team had to see its win total drop by multiple games the ensuing season. Double-digit wins in the season directly after the "one-hit wonder" candidate season also served as an automatic disqualifier. So as magical as the 2016 season was for USC, Penn State and Washington, none of those teams made the list when considering the thresholds they reached in 2017.

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If you hit 2019 LSU with that moniker, why not 2013 Florida State as well? Or 2005 Texas?

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Florida State won the ACC for three years in a row (2012-2014) and had a really good 5 year run.

Texas won 12 games in 2004, 11 in 2006, 12 in 2008, and 13 in 2009.

This POST all but confirms that 2019 LSU lives, breathes and holds a sweet spot in your head, 24/7-365 and sometimes 366 with a leap year.