It was a year of 10,000 stories in and around college football in 2015. There were great plays made by great players, and there were plenty of magical and emotional moments to keep us entertained.

RELATED: Stories 50-46 | Stories 45-41 | Stories 40-36 | Stories 35-31 | Stories 30-26 | Stories 25-21

We’re culling the list down to the 50 best stories of the year. Here are stories 20 through 16:

2o. Derrick Henry’s monster season for Alabama

When the talk turned to running backs in the preseason, Georgia’s Nick Chubb and LSU’s Leonard Fournette always came first. Alabama’s Derrick Henry got some mentions, but it was Chubb and Fournette who were one and two.

Henry got the last word in, though.

What he did in the last four SEC games was incredible. He made big-time plays in big-time games and willed the Crimson Tide to a come-from-behind SEC West title. He gained 874 yards on those four games, a 218,5 average, all against some pretty good defenses. He broke Herschel Walker’s long-standing SEC rushing record and passed every SEC legend along the way.

Here’s his run (no pun intended):

LSU on Nov. 7: Football is a team but this was the one-on-one matchup of the year, Derrick Henry vs. Leonard Fournette. It was Fournette who was the unanimous Heisman leader at the time, but this one wasn’t even close. Henry gained 210 yards on 38 carries and scored three touchdowns. Fournette had only 31 yards on 19 carries in the 30-16 rout that wasn’t nearly that close.

Mississippi State on Nov. 14: Henry had 204 yards and two scores against a Bulldog team that came into the game red-hot. The Tide, behind Henry, won easily 31-6.

Auburn on Nov. 28: He saved the best for in-state rival Auburn in the Iron Bowl, rushing for 271 yards on a record 46 carries in the 29-13 win over the hated Tigers.

Florida on Dec. 3: He put the icing on the cake in the SEC Championship Game, rushing for 189 yards on 44 carries in the rout of Florida. It also sealed the deal on the Heisman voting. Henry would be the runaway winner a week later.

Winning the SEC was special for Henry, of course, but who they beat also mattered. Henry is from Yulee, Florida, and he was a high school football legend, one of the greatest running backs in state history.

But during the recruiting process, then Florida-coach Will Muschamp wanted him to switch to defense. Henry laughed and picked Alabama instead, even though he might have preferred to stay closer to home.

Smart move heading to Tuscaloosa instead of Gainesville. He’s an SEC all-timer now, with a Heisman Trophy in tow and a shot at a national title in a few weeks. That’s a heck of a run.

(That pun is intended.)

19. Bizarre incidents with the Nkemdiche brothers

It’s been a great three years at Ole Miss for the Nkemdiche brothers but it’s downright crazy how the past few weeks have been for both of them.

And it’s a crazy shame that their last acts might be what we remember most, not all they accomplished on the football field.

Since mid-November, senior Denzel Nkemdiche, Robert Nkemdiche’s older brother, has hospitalized twice. He was treated for an unknown illness in November and missed games and then was hospitalized again last week after being found unresponsive. He was rushed to the University of Mississippi Medical Central to be treated.

The university’s sports department didn’t have a comment on the second admittance, saying  Denzel Nkemdiche “is no longer on the team and is under his father’s supervision.”

Robert Nkemdiche, the No. 1 recruit in the country three years ago, has had his own problems.

The junior defensive lineman was  charged with marijuana possession after he fell from a fourth-floor balcony at  an Atlanta hotel. He apologized for the incident.

Neither will play in the Sugar Bowl, according to Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze. Robert said Sunday that he is ready to begin the next phase of his life, which includes entering the NFL draft. He will be a top pick, though this latest incident might have some NFL scout a bit more concerned now. Drug issues are huge red flags.

It’s a disappointing way to be leaving Oxford. We should be remembering Robert Ndemdiche for this, interviews after beating Alabama for a second straight game and the sheer joy that came with it.

Not all this other garbage.

18. Tennessee’s run of late-game collapses

Tennessee wasn’t far off from having a dream season. The final tally says 8-4, but those four losses could have gone a different way.

Check out all this heartbreak:

Oklahoma on Sept. 12: Tennessee’s huge September national showdown with Oklahoma was all Vols … for most of it. UT scored the first 17 points of the game and still led 17-3 with only 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter. But Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield threw two late TD passes, including one to tie the game with only 40 seconds left. OU won 31-24 in double overtime. The Sooners would go on to win the Big 12 and make the playoffs, going 11-1.

Florida on Sept. 26: There’s pain, like the Oklahoma loss. Then there’s severe pain, like the loss to Florida. The Gators were down to a fourth-and-14 situation, trailing 27-21 with less than two minutes to go, but then scored a touchdown on a pass to Antonio Callaway to steal the lead. UT still had a chance but missed a late 55-yard field goal at the buzzer. Want to make it hurt even worse, Vols fans? Here’s the Florida call of the two big plays:

Arkansas on Oct. 3: A week later, Tennessee jumped out to another 14-0 lead, only to lose 24-20 at home to an Arkansas team that had lost three straight games. “Our competitive character is being tested,” Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. “Our fortitude is being tested. All you can do is keep working – and work your way through it.”

Alabama on Oct. 24: After a huge upset win over Georgia, UT was primed to give Alabama a battle. And they did, but their hearts were once again broken when Derrick Henry scored a touchdown with 2:24 left to give the Crimson Tide a 19-14 victory.

In all four losses, Tennessee had a big lead. In all four losses, they led in the fourth quarter. In all four losses, there was a whole of what might have been.

It’s not a stretch at all to this Tennessee could have gone 12-0 this year and would be playing for a national championship in a few weeks.

But they didn’t know how to finish games and that’s their biggest lesson going forward. They have a ton of talent coming back and might very well be the SEC favorites next year.

That is, if they’ve learned anything.

17. Kirby Smart comes home to Georgia

Kirby Smart, Alabama’s defensive coordinator for the past eight years and the architect behind a defense that has won multiple national championships, has agreed to a six-year contract that will pay him approximately $3.75 million per season to be the head coach at Georgia.

It was a home-run hire, bringing home a former Georgia player to replace Mark Richt.

It had better be.

Richt won 145 games in 15 years at Georgia and was just a few plays away from probably winning a national title in 2012 before Alabama – and Kirby Smart – broke their hearts with a late rally in the SEC Championship Game.

Richt did good things at UGA, but not great enough. A change was needed and Smart was the guy. He was an easy choice.

Smart is a 39-year-old son of a football coach with huge Georgia roots. His time in Athens as a player was the “five best years of his life,” he said at his introductory press conference. He immediately went out recruiting, and he’ll be awesome.

Georgia fans had grown tired of Richt’s teams coming up short. A 9-3 record just wasn’t good enough anymore and Smart’s charge is to change that. He’s already had huge wins on the recruiting trail, including keeping top QB Jacob Eason committed to Georgia. He’ll be enrolling in a few weeks and will be at spring practice.

So will Smart. It’s a new era.

16. High school referee attacked

It was, without a doubt, the most bizarre football play of the year.

Two Texas high school players took off the at the whistle and clobbered an unsuspecting referee intentionally right in the back. One player hit him, then another jumped on him.

It was a despicable act.

The YouTube video has logged more than 11 million views and spawned a national discussion about the combustible mix of race, violence and football. In a small Texas town, population of 6,128, one school with a predominant Anglo population (Marble Falls) defeated another with a predominant minority population (Jay), 15–9. The game featured 32 penalties (17 against Jay, 15 on Marble Falls) and four ejections (all from Jay).

Michael Moreno and Victor Rojas were both suspended immediately. They were quick to get out in front of the cameras the next week when criticism of their actions came from all corners of the country. They blamed the coach, and didn’t seem to want to take any responsibility for their own actions. That might have been even more despicable. The coach, Mack Breed, was eventually suspended as well.

The two former Jay players, both minors, are now attending the district’s alternative school until January 2016 and are suspended from all athletic activities for the remainder of the school year.

The committee also suspended Jay assistant coach Mack Breed for the remainder of the school year and issued two years of probation for his conduct during the game.

Breed denied allegations made by the players that he ordered the Moreno and Rojas to tackle and spear the umpire during the end of a game. He admitted being furious with the officiating, but said he never told the players anything.

In any case, it was a huge black mark for high school football in Texas. That’s something that can just never happen.