Auburn football: 247Sports calls 2010 Tigers “one-hit wonder”

While Auburn football may not be the most decorated program in the SEC, the Tigers have managed to snatch up a National Championship in the 21st century (cough, Georgia). Auburn has competed in two national title games in the last 20 years, but no one can deny the greatness of the Tigers’ 2010 football team.

Cam Newton, referred to by 247Sports’ Dean Straka as “the ultimate cheat code”, led the Auburn football team to a 14-0 season culminating in the defeat of the Oregon Ducks for the national title. But the next season the Tigers fell back to mediocrity and the season after that was the worst in years. Maybe that’s why Straka refers to Auburn’s 2010 team as a one-hit-wonder in his article.

Throughout the 2009-2010 season, the Tigers’ offense exploded with the dual run-pass threat of Newton and powerhouse running back Michael Dyer. The season floated by like a dream, and nothing could stop the Auburn football team:

"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."

Are the Auburn Tigers truly just a one-hit wonder? After going 3-9 in the 2012 season, Gus Malzahn took the reigns from Gene Chizik and inexplicably had the Tigers competing for the championship again in 2013, only to fall flat and continue the downward trend for the next seven years on the Plains.

So here we are, exactly where we were at the beginning of 2013. No one has high expectations for our team, and the Tigers are undergoing a regime change and major culture change during the offseason. New head coach Bryan Harsin and his support staff have also been giving the roster a makeover, pulling in major recruits from the transfer portal like former LSU quarterback T.J. Finley.

The conditions are perfect for the Auburn football team to take the world by storm in the coming season, and it’s possible that their experience of being a so-called “one-hit wonder” could help get them there.