I grew up in just the right niche to get The Knack.

So in offering up players from SEC East history as one-hit wonders, I hope you’ll give me a little latitude.

These players definitely had one game or season that stands way above any others, their “My Sharona.” Sure, they also may have had a “Good Girls Don’t,” but I be telling you that isn’t the effort you remember and replay 40 years later.

RELATED: SEC West one-hit wonders

Florida

Torrey Davis, BCS title game (2008 season)

Truth be told, a lot of Gators fans would probably remember Davis as more trouble than he was worth if not for back-to-back goal-line stops against Oklahoma that preserved a tie and swung momentum.

In the second quarter, Sam Bradford marched OU 65 yards for a tying score, and shortly thereafter the Sooners intercepted a Tim Tebow pass and moved the ball to Florida’s 1-yard line.

On third down, Davis stood up Chris Brown for no gain. Eschewing a field goal try, OU coach Bob Stoops called Brown’s number again. Davis dropped him for a 2-yard loss (5:35 mark of highlights below).

Those were Brown’s only two tackles of the game. The game remained tied, 7-7, through halftime, and the Gators scored the game’s final 10 points — in the fourth quarter — to take their second national championship in three years, 24-14.

Davis, who had various off-field issues, never played another game for Florida. The defensive tackle finished with 15 tackles and two sacks in 19 games with the Gators.

He wound up at Jacksonville State, then bounced around the CFL and the Arena League.

Still, Florida fans — and Chris Brown — will never forget him.

Georgia

Verron Haynes, 2001 season

Primarily a blocking back for most of his Georgia career, Haynes’ initial moment of glory came in the fourth game of his senior season.

Generally, catching a ball while wide open doesn’t a hero make. But when one does so in the end zone, on the final play of the game, to beat Tennessee in front of 107,000-plus at Neyland Stadium, well, that’s different.

And Haynes was just getting started, as the stars aligned for him to have one of the best career-closing stretches in Georgia history.

Two weeks after the 26-24 victory over the Vols, Haynes lit up Kentucky for 86 yards rushing, 73 receiving and three touchdowns.

By the latter part of the season, Haynes had taken over as the Bulldogs’ feature back as Musa Smith battled an injury.

Over his final four games, including the Music City Bowl, Haynes averaged 163.3 yards on 29 carries — with highs of 39 carries and 207 yards in a 31-17 win against Georgia Tech.

Not bad for a guy who had all of 11 regular-season carries before 2001. After Georgia, Haynes took his lunch-pail, fullback game to Pittsburgh and spent six seasons with the Steelers.

Kentucky

Artose Pinner, 2002 season

For diehard Kentucky football fans, Pinner’s 2002 effort might be the only fond memory in the seven-year period from 1999-2005. It produced the only winning season (7-5) of that stretch, and “effort” is exactly the right word.

You have to respect a running back willing to work his butt off for a team that can’t got to a bowl game because of NCAA sanctions left over from previous coach Hal Mumme’s tenure.

Pinner didn’t come completely from nowhere. He had one 100-yard rushing game as a sophomore under Mumme, and two in Guy Morriss’ first season.

But before his senior season, Pinner never had more than 20 all-purpose touches (runs and receptions) in a game. In 2002, he had nine such games on the way to a school-record 320 all-purpose plays. The record still stands.

The workload resulted in eight 100-yard rushing games, 1,414 rushing yards, 264 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns. To put it in perspective, he had almost 64.5 percent of his career touches and 66.8 percent of his career all-purpose yards as a senior. Or, to put it more simply, he had a heck of a year.

Pinner played five sesaons in the NFL, highlighted by a late-season 29-carry, 125-yard rushing game in 2006 as a member of the Minnesota Vikings.

Missouri

Zain Gilmore, 1999 vs. Texas Tech

During a miserable stretch of games during a miserable stretch of seasons for Missouri football, Gilmore provided a reprieve on Oct. 30, 1999 — his 20th birthday.

The sophomore had been sharing carries, but after DeVaughn Black fumbled — for the third time in as many games — early in the contest, coach Larry Smith decided it was Gilmore Time.

Gilmore carried 45 times — a school record that still stands — for 165 yards and three touchdowns. He carried 17 times on Mizzou’s 19-play final drive that ate 10:23 off the clock and ended with Gilmore scoring from the 1.

The Tigers beat the Red Raiders 34-7, their only win in the season’s final seven games.

That year was Gilmore’s best season (764 rushing yards), and 24 percent of his carries and almost 22 percent of his yards came on his birthday.

Over the next two seasons, Gilmore got more than 14 carries only three times. They were his only 100-yard games those seasons, and they were all victories. Mizzou went 8-20 over the final 28 games of Gilmore’s career and had two head coaches (Gary Pinkel took over in 2001) and three offensive coordinators during that time.

Just based on the numbers, it seems like Gilmore might have been underused and underappreciated.

South Carolina

Erik Kimrey, 2000 vs. Mississippi State

The play lives on in Gamecocks lore simply as “The Fade,” Kimrey’s 25-yard touchdown pass on 4th-and-10 late in the fourth quarter to beat Mississippi State.

The play was as huge as it was improbable. Consider:

  • Kimrey was a home-grown, walk-on sophomore who prior to this point had completed four career passes, and he entered the game cold because starter Phil Petty had just gotten hurt. It was his only pass of the game.
  • Kimrey allegedly called his shot, although “I can throw the fade, coach” were not his exact words to second-year coach Lou Holtz on the sideline, according to an article last year by The State newspaper. He did use those words with media members after the game — dumbing down the team’s play-calling jargon.
  • The Gamecocks held on after Kimrey’s strike to Jermale Kelly for a 23-19 victory over the No. 25 Bulldogs, allowing fans at Williams-Brice Stadium to celebrate a 4-0 start on the heels of a winless 1999 season.

Kimrey played a few snaps prior to his big moment, and he shared time with Petty the next week, putting up solid numbers in a loss to Alabama. After that, he didn’t throw another pass until 2002, his final season, when he played in five games and went 7-of-14 with his only other TD pass.

The son of a coach, Kimrey is reaching legendary status as a coach himself. His Hammond School high school team in Columbia, S.C., has won eight state titles in 11 years. He says he loves it there, and would only consider leaving for a spot on USC’s staff.

Tennessee

Billy Ratliff, 1998 vs. Arkansas

Ratliff, a junior defensive tackle at the time, admits to getting his “tail whipped all game long” leading up to the improbable moment.

Tennessee’s push for post-Peyton perfection had survived Tee Martin growing pains in a season-opening, heart-stopping 34-33 victory over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, and in a 20-17 OT win over Florida in Week 2.

Riding a wave of momentum and stout defense, the Vols had reached 8-0 and a No. 1 ranking heading into this Nov. 14 visit from No. 10 Arkansas.

All seemed lost when Tennessee turned the ball over on downs with 1:54 remaining, trailing 24-22.

Still, Ratliff swears he told Martin to keep his helmet on, “we’ll be right back,” according to an extended interview he did with utsports.com. Sure enough, after making his first tackle of the day on first down, Ratliff causes the “Stoerner Stumble” and recovers QB Clint Stoerner’s resultant fumble.

Travis Henry carries five straight times to put the ball in the end zone, Tennessee wins 28-24 and goes on to beat Florida State in the first BCS National Championship Game.

“I’m usually not one to take credit for anything,” Ratliff said. “I like to spread the credit around to everyone else. But when it comes to this story, I don’t sugarcoat it. I tell it exactly the way it happened.”

Vanderbilt

Warren Norman, 2009 season

When something a player does can be described with the words “became the first SEC freshman since Herschel Walker,” that’s saying something. In Norman’s case, it was leading the league in all-purpose yards. He set the SEC freshman record with 1,941 on his way to consensus SEC Freshman of the Year honors.

Of those yards, 1,050 came on kickoff returns, setting an SEC record (he has since fallen to second on the list). Three of the returns went for touchdowns, tying the SEC record.

Norman made seven starts and led the Commodores in rushing with 783 yards while also gaining 108 yards on 19 receptions.

As a sophomore, Norman was on his way to a solid if not quite as spectacular season before an injury cost him the year’s final four games. He again led the team in rushing, with 459 yards.

He sat out 2011 and played sparingly in 2012 as Zac Stacy produced the second of his back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Norman returned only two kicks that year, for 32 yards, after returning 62 for 1,608 in his first 20 games as a Commodore.

He decided to forego a redshirt senior season in 2013 because his knees just weren’t healthy enough. He said farewell at an emotional press conference.

“This is about a guy who came into this program with class leaving with class,” said coach James Franklin, who arrived at Vandy in 2011 and missed out on seeing Norman at his healthy best. “This is a guy that gets the big picture, and that’s why we’re so proud of him.”

Verron Haynes cover photo courtesy of University of Georgia Athletics.