Who are the greatest "One and done" players in Auburn athletics history?

There was an interesting question asked on "The Auburn Daily Show" on Tuesday: Who are the five greatest "One and Done" athletes in Auburn history?

#1: QB Cam Newton

It's impossible to argue that QB Cam Newton's single year at Auburn isn't the greatest. In 2010, he led Auburn to an undefeated season and a National Championship, winning the Heisman Trophy and securing himself as the #1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. In the NFL, he continued the excellence, being named the 2011 Offensive Rookie of the Year and winning the 2015 MVP award with the Carolina Panthers, taking them to a 15-1 record and an appearance in Super Bowl 50.

Newton's 2010 year at Auburn saw him complete 185 of 280 pass attempts for 2,854 yards (10.2 YPA), 30 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions through the air, while adding 264 carries for 1,473 yards (5.58/carry) and 20 touchdowns on the ground.

For good measure, he also had 2 catches for 42 yards and a touchdown.

No one's arguing the #1 spot; it's Cam Newton. He carried Auburn football to a national championship, on a team that had the lowest "blue-chip ratio" of the entire BCS or CFP era.

#2: F Jabari Smith

As a 6-10 true freshman in 2021, Smith took Auburn basketball to an SEC regular season championship and into the NCAA tournament, setting records and winning awards.

On the court, over his 34 games he averaged 16.9 points per game, with 7.4 rebounds and 2 assists on 42.9%/42%/79.9% shooting. After finishing 5th in the SEC in points per game, as well as 7th in rebounds and 13th in blocks, he entered the 2022 NBA Draft, where he was taken 3rd overall by the Houston Rockets.

Jabari gets the nod at #2 for winning a championship while at Auburn, as well as taking the basketball program to new heights - Auburn reached #1 in the AP Poll for the first time in January 2022, then in the middle of a 19-game winning streak.

#3: 1B Sonny DiChiara

Auburn baseball's "Thicc King", DiChiara was the Co-SEC Player of the Year after a monster senior season where he batted .384/.549/.777 w/ 22 home runs, 37 extra-base hits, 68 walks to 55 strikeouts, and carried the Auburn Tigers all the way to the College World Series in Omaha, where they beat Stanford in game two before being eliminated by 3rd-place finisher Arkansas.

DiChiara transferred in from Samford and was known as a power-hitter with a good batter's eye, but to finish his time at Auburn as the country's leader in walks per game and to finish 2nd on Auburn's all-time single-season home run leaderboard was completely unexpected. A First Team All-American by most outlets, DiChiara was only the sixth consensus All-American in Auburn baseball history and went on to be selected in the 5th Round by the Los Angeles Angels.

#4: RB Rudi Johnson

In a time before the transfer portal, Rudi Johnson stopped on The Plains the old-fashioned way - junior college.

After two years at Butler Community College, where he led the Grizzlies to consecutive national championships in 1998 and 1999, he enrolled at Auburn for his junior year. In that 13-game season, capped by a narrow Citrus Bowl loss to Michigan on New Years Day, he ran for 1,652 yards on 349 carries (4.7 yards per carry) and scored 11 touchdowns. Chipping in eleven catches for eighty-five yards, he finished with 84 total points scored and a then-2nd highest single season rushing total in Auburn history, behind Bo Jackson's 1,786 yards in 1985. He was drafted in the 4th round of the 2001 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and went on to amass more than 6,500 total yards and 50 total touchdowns over his time in the NFL.

#5: C Walker Kessler or F Isaac Okoro?

Here's where the conversation gets dicey: Do you think the 2021 dominance of Defensive Player of the Year Walker Kessler or the hot but abbreviated 2020 Okoro season deserves more recognition?

Case for Kessler: Sheer defensive dominance. In 2022, Walker Kessler registered more individual blocks (155) than all but 15 entire NCAA teams collected in 2022, not only setting Auburn's single season blocks record but collecting the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Award, the first time that award went to a member of the Auburn Tigers. He went on to be drafted with the 22nd pick of the NBA Draft and is currently in his first season with the Utah Jazz.

Case for Okoro: Electric, well-rounded game. In his abbreviated 28-game career at Auburn, he averaged almost 13 points per game, with 4.4 rebounds and 2 assists. Considered to be an all-around talent, he was named Second-Team All-SEC AND All-SEC Defensive Team, the first time an Auburn player had been recognized on both lists. He went on to be drafted with the 5th overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers and was named to the 2021 NBA All-Rookie Second Team.

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