[OC] One-Hit Wonders- Part IA: Derek Loville (HB, San Francisco, 1995)

There are some players that go on to have long and successful NFL careers. They’re consistently good, and by the time they retire, are fondly remembered for their overall body of work. There are some players that do absolutely nothing. They stink, or they barely make a roster and then just hop from team to team hoping that something sticks, but nothing ever does. There are some players that are consistently average, some that are busts, and some that are huge surprises. Everyone’s career is different.

But then, there’s the ones that had one season. One great season, and that was it. For a brief moment in time, they looked like an all-star, and they had their game on and were ready to play. And then, that was it. They never did anything else again. Much like the artist that had one great song and then never did anything on the charts again, these are the players that had one great season, and never did anything else again.

I’ve got a bunch of series going on this offseason, with Lost Leagues on Sundays, Record Watch on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Draft Scratchers on Tuesdays. The links for all of those are down below. On Thursdays, we’re going with a series called One Hit Wonders, which is pretty self explanatory. These are the one-hit wonders of the NFL- the guys that had one good season and then fell off just as quickly as they came on.

Today’s Oneder of the week (yes, I stole that from That Thing You Do, but I don’t care)? Derek Loville.

NOTE: Turns out, this was over 8,000 words and 15 pages single spaced on Microsoft Word (and was 14 parts long), so I'm dividing this up into separate posts. Parts 1-7 are in the body of this one, while the other parts are in the comments and will be linked below.

Part I: Days at Oregon

If you’re not a fan of the 49ers or Oregon football, you’ve probably never heard of this guy before. This guy isn’t exactly one of the more memorable one-hit wonders. In fact, there’s only been one post about this guy on the NFL subreddit even mentioning his name, and that was this post, when he got arrested. Loville denied that he did this, but earlier in February this year, admitted to selling oxycodone and ecstasy for an international drug ring. Don’t think you expected that when you clicked on this post about a one hit wonder.

However, let’s go back to when he was known for his football skills. The truth is that in college, Loville was really good. In fact, he was extremely good. Here’s a nice run he had against Hawaii in his junior season back in 1988. If you want to see a short touchdown run with the Donald Duck logo on the jerseys up close, here you go. Here’s a play where the director in the truck is so focused on the girl that he forgets to show the snap, and misses part of a touchdown play.

By the end of his junior season, he was so good that he had already broken the Oregon school record for most rushing yards. In 1988, he led the entire Pac-10 with 13 rushing touchdowns, and he followed that up in his senior season with 13 touchdowns. Loville was not only a workhorse, but an extremely productive halfback at Oregon. When his career was done after 1989, he was third in the conference’s history in rushing attempts, only behind Charles White of USC (1976-79) and Marcus Allen of USC (1978-81). He finished with the fourth most rushing touchdowns in Pac-10 history, only behind Charles White of USC (1976-79), Marcus Allen of USC (1978-81), and Anthony Davis of USC (1972-74). When his career at Oregon was done, he had the most rushing touchdowns in conference history of any non-USC halfback. To this day, Loville still holds the Oregon record for most plays from scrimmage in his career (906), and finished with the fourth most in Pac-10 history, only behind White, Allen, and Darrin Nelson of Stanford (1977-81).

Loville was one of the reasons why Oregon finally became relevant. Were they as relevant as they are today with their uniform changes every week and their constant success in conference play (minus this year)? No. However, before Loville got there, Oregon was a joke. He arrived as a freshman in the 1986 season under head coach Rich Brooks. Prior to his arrival, the last time Oregon had a season with 7 or more wins was in 1964 under head coach Len Casanova, when they went 7-2-1 as a member of the Athletic Association of Western Universities; this later became the Pac-8, the Pac-10, and today, the Pac-12.

But thanks to Loville and his rushing abilities, Oregon became good. In his senior year, Oregon went 8-4 and won the Independence Bowl. This was the most wins they’ve had in a season since 1959 when they were an independent, and was the first time they won a bowl game since winning the 1963 Sun Bowl over SMU. How long ago was that? They weren’t even the Oregon Ducks during that game- they were known as the Webfoots. It was just the third bowl game that Oregon ever won when they won the 1989 Independence Bowl, alongside the 1963 Sun Bowl and the 1916 Rose Bowl.

And, in 1989, they finished tied for second in the Pac-10, which was tied for their best ever finish in the conference at the time. They beat Iowa on the road, who was ranked #24 at the time, and demolished them 44-6, won a nationally televised game on ABC against UCLA in the Rose Bowl 38-20, and beat a #17 ranked Arizona team by a score of 16-10. At multiple points during the season, Oregon was ranked in the top 25, including a ranking as high as #22. The 1989 season was the start of Oregon actually starting to become noticed in college football, and Loville was a big part of that.

Part II: 1990 NFL Draft

You would think with everything I mentioned that Loville would be, at the very least, a draft pick. However, Loville was not drafted. Scouts thought he was a volume player, and only accumulated his stats because he got lots of touches. Technically, they weren’t wrong; he only averaged 3.9 yards per carry during his final season with the Ducks. You compare that number with Steve Broussard, who played in the Pac-10 at the same time for Washington State and averaged 4.8 YPC and was a first round pick, and it’s like night and day. Loville went undrafted, and this was in a 12-round draft where 331 players got taken. Fun fact- this was the draft where Matt Stover got taken. Yes, Matt Stover was taken in a draft all the way back in 1990. He was in the league for that long.

There were lots of good halfbacks taken in that 1990 draft. The Cowboys took Emmitt Smith in the first round out of Florida, and he ended his career as the all-time leading rusher in NFL history. The Giants took Rodney Hampton in the first round out of Georgia, and he finished his career with just under 7,000 rushing yards and 2 Pro Bowl appearances. Harold Green and Leroy Hoard each made the Pro Bowl after being taken in the second round by the Bengals and Browns, respectively. Chris Warren, a fourth round pick by the Seahawks, had over 7,600 rushing yards, and made the Pro Bowl three times; he was the all-time leading rusher in Seattle before Shaun Alexander broke that mark. Barry Foster made two Pro Bowls for the Steelers in 1992 and 1993 after getting taken in the fifth round. And, Johnny Johnson, a seventh round pick by the Phoenix Cardinals, made the 1991 Pro Bowl. You get the idea- lots of good halfbacks were drafted.

But Derek Loville was not one of them. David Lang, a halfback out of Northern Arizona who had a mere 521 rushing yards in his final season with the Lumberjacks, got taken. Richard Bell, a halfback out of Nebraska who had just 51 career rushing attempts over his three-year collegiate career, got taken. Harry Jackson, a halfback out of St. Cloud State of all places, got taken (from what I found on him, while I couldn’t find any stats, he is currently the Assistant Director of Multicultural Student Services at that university). But not Derek Loville. One of the most productive halfbacks in Pac-10 history was on the outside looking in by the time all 331 names were called.

He would find a home in Seattle as an undrafted free agent. Seattle hit a home run during the 1990 NFL Draft, as in the first round, they drafted Hall of Fame player Cortez Kennedy. But they also drafted Chris Warren in the fourth round, a halfback who went to Ferrum. At the time, Ferrum was a member of the USA South Athletic Conference, and still are today (they joined in 1988). And Warren was a pretty good halfback, as he made it to three Pro Bowls during his career. Loville was joining a team that just drafted a pretty good halfback in round four, so his chances with the Seahawks were slim. Still, everyone’s got to start somewhere.

Part III: Early NFL Career

Where Loville would become a one-hit wonder was not with the Seahawks. In 1991, of all of the players on Seattle’s roster, Loville was making the least amount of money, and was making merely $65,000 that season. While he made the roster his first year with the Seahawks, his numbers, when given the opportunity, were flat out garbage. He was primarily a kick returner, and averaged just 19.9 yards per return. Assuming he fielded the ball in the end zone every time, it would’ve been more effective to have a touchback than it would’ve been to have him return it… and this was under the old touchback rules where the ball was placed at the 20.

That first season, he had just 12 yards on 7 rushes. His longest rush of the season was a grand total of 4 years. He had 6 yards on 2 carries on opening day against Chicago, had 1 yard on 2 carries in week 3 against Denver, and had 5 yards on 3 carries in week 7 against Kansas City. After week 7, he never got another carry (the bye week was in week 8), and he didn’t play at all in the final five games of the season. After a 7-9 season in 1989, the Seahawks were actually quite decent in 1990, going 9-7 and winning 5 of their last 6 after starting off 0-3. They even played a game in the Tokyo Dome that year against the Broncos in the preseason; not sure why they played a preseason game against each other when they’re in the same division, but that’s not the point. The point is that even though they were successful, Loville had nothing to do with it.

Loville’s role with the Seahawks would increase in 1991, but not by much. He ran the ball 22 times for 69 yards that season, and didn’t score a touchdown. The Seahawks went 7-9 that year, and Loville only had a carry in 6 games that season. His first 7 carries of the season went for just 16 yards, and in the 6 games he got carries in, he was held to 2 yards per carry or less in 4 of them.

After he was cut by the Seahawks after two disappointing years following the 1991 season, he signed on with the Rams in 1992. Head coach Chuck Knox brought him in, but he didn’t do much in the preseason, and had an uphill climb to make the roster. The Rams had a pretty talented rushing unit; Cleveland Gary, who in 1990, led the NFL in rushing touchdowns with 14, was on the roster. Robert Delpino was on the roster, and in 1991, led the team with 9 rushing touchdowns, and even had 55 receptions for 617 yards. He was a multi-dimensional halfback. Not even Marcus Dupree, despite an impressive preseason, could make the roster, so Loville had no chance. Loville was cut at the end of the 1992 preseason, and it looked like his NFL days were numbered.

Loville didn’t make a roster in 1992, and didn’t make a gameday roster in 1993 either. Even though he signed with the 49ers in 1993, he appeared in a grand total of zero games. In 1994, he won a Super Bowl with the team, but didn’t exactly do much; he had 31 carries on the season for 99 yards, and only got a carry in 7 games that season. He didn’t carry the ball during the playoffs, and didn’t carry it during Super Bowl XXIX either. And every game that Loville carried the ball in was a game decided by 15 or more points, so he was a mop-up halfback. Here were the 6 games that he ran the ball in:

Week	Opponent	Number of Carries	Final Score	Margin of Victory/Defeat
3	LA Rams	2	34-19	15
5	Philadelphia	2	8-40	-32
7	Atlanta	9	42-3	39
8	Tampa Bay	6	41-16	25
10	Washington	3	37-22	15
14	Atlanta	4	50-14	36
16	Denver	5	42-19	23

Make no mistake- the 1994 San Francisco 49ers might be one of the greatest teams of all-time. They went 13-3 that season (and one loss was in a meaningless game against the Vikings in week 17), won all of their playoff games by double digits, won those playoff games by an average of roughly 21 points, and won 13 of their 19 games overall, including playoffs, by multiple possessions. That’s why Loville got the ball so much- he was a product of being on a very good team.

So far, Loville had been a pro player for 5 seasons, and had done absolutely nothing outside of mop-up duty. But in 1995, that would all change, and he would have one of the more unexpected seasons a player could have.

Part IV: A Troublesome Offseason

For a while, the San Francisco 49ers had some really good halfbacks. You had Roger Craig, a borderline Hall of Fame player. And a few years after that, you had Ricky Watters. Watters was absolutely dominant with the 49ers after getting drafted in the second round of the 1991 NFL Draft. Because of injuries, he didn’t play in 1991, but from 1992-94, he made the Pro Bowl all three seasons. He scored 25 touchdowns rushing in 3 seasons with the 49ers, and picked up 140 receptions along the way. For his entire career, Watters had 78 touchdowns and over 10,000 rushing yards, and had 7 seasons with over 1,000 yards rushing. It’s funny that for how good Watters was with San Francisco, when you look at his entire career, he actually put up his worst numbers with the 49ers, as he was really good for the Seahawks and Eagles as well.

After 1994, the 49ers were on top of the world. They had just won Super Bowl XXIX over the San Diego Chargers, and had survived whatever this halftime show was. But in 1995, they had a mini-crisis on their hands. Ricky Watters left the team in free agency to join the Philadelphia Eagles. Seeing as Watters started every game for the 49ers in 1994 and had scored 3 touchdowns in Super Bowl XXIX (one on the ground and two in the air as a receiver), this was a massive blow. Marc Logan also left after the 1994 season and joined Washington, so entering 1995, the 49ers were down Watters and Logan, two important elements to their running game. Yes, Dexter Carter also left to sign a free agent contract with the Jets, but seeing as he only had 8 carries in 1994 anyways, this wasn’t exactly a huge blow.

Remember that during this time, free agency was a new frontier in the NFL. Nobody knew that better than the 49ers, who maybe won a Super Bowl off of that when they signed Deion Sanders. Head coach George Seifert said, “We’ve had more change following this Super Bowl than we’ve ever had. It’s not something you just get used to overnight.”

Did the 49ers address that position during the draft? Not even close. They only had 4 picks that year, and they spent none of them on a halfback. Their first pick was spent on UCLA wide receiver JJ Stokes, who, while not terrible, certainly didn’t live up to being the tenth overall pick in the draft. He finished his career with the 49ers with 4,139 yards in 8 seasons, and had more than 600 yards in a season just twice (1997 and 1998). After not having a pick in the second or third round, they spent their fourth round pick on Tim Hanshaw, a tight end out of BYU. He got converted to the offensive line and started just 3 games for the team, with all 3 of them coming in 1997. Their final 2 picks were spent on defensive end Antonio Armstrong (who never made the active roster), and defensive end Herb Coleman (who never made the active roster). This was a terrible draft no matter which way you slice it.

And of those four picks, not one of them addressed their biggest need, which was halfback. In fairness to the 49ers, the halfback class in 1995 was pretty bad; there were 5 halfbacks taken in the first round. Not one of them made it to a single Pro Bowl. Ki-Jana Carter was a bust for the Bengals as the first overall pick, Tyrone Wheatley was taken by the Giants, Napoleon Kaufman was taken by the Raiders, James Stewart was taken by the Jaguars, and Rahsaan Salaam was taken by the Bears. Stewart turned out the best of the 5, but in the first round, that’s not saying much. Of the first 14 halfbacks taken in 1995, only one of them ever made a Pro Bowl; granted, that one was Curtis Martin, but other than that, there wasn’t really anyone out there.

Part V: The Halfback Controversy

Much like teams that need QBs pass on ones if the class isn’t that good, the 49ers did the same thing here, and passed on halfbacks. When you’ve only got 4 picks to work with, you have to use them wisely. While the picks weren’t good picks, they didn’t miss on any halfbacks. Curtis Martin in the first round would’ve been a massive reach, and remember, the 49ers didn’t have a second or a third round pick to work with. Martin was taken 71st overall by the Patriots; from the time the 49ers made pick #10, they didn’t have another pick to work with until pick #127.

This meant that they were rolling into the 1995 season at halfback with what they had. This meant a halfback competition, even if it wasn’t a very good one. There were 3 options that the 49ers had in 1995. Option #1 was Ricky Ervins, who signed with San Francisco as a free agent from Washington. In 1994, Ervins had a decent season, starting 10 games and recording 650 yards on 3 touchdowns; however, he only averaged 3.5 yards per carry. Option #2 was Adam Walker, who was on the 49ers since 1992 but didn’t do much. In 1994, he had 54 yards on 13 carries, and in the 3 seasons prior to 1995, he had just 18 carries and 1 touchdown.

And, option #3 was probably the least likely of the bunch. That was Derek Loville, who was entering his sixth season in the NFL, and had done absolutely nothing. Prior to the 1995 season, Loville hadn’t even scored a touchdown. He had exactly 3 yards per carry (180 yards on 60 carries), had just 2 catches, and had just 1 rush that was longer than 15 yards. He was on his third different team already, and was pretty much inactive for the postseason and for every close game. Loville was a longshot.

However, Seifert gives the starting job to Loville, and Loville starts all 16 games that season. The result? A completely unexpected season that ended up being a pleasant highlight of Loville’s career.

He won the job based off of one play, and that was a 4-yard touchdown pass in the preseason against the San Diego Chargers in a preseason rematch of Super Bowl XXIX (the 49ers won 17-6, for those curious about the score of a preseason game from 1995). Earlier in the game, Loville had a critical fumble in San Diego territory. That could’ve put him in the doghouse. But after catching a 4-yard touchdown pass and finding the end zone, Loville had the starting job won. He was working with the first team offense already, and that solidified Seifert’s decision. Loville, a man who had no touchdowns in his first 5 seasons, would be the replacement for Ricky Watters and would be the starting halfback on the defending Super Bowl champions for the 1995 season. No pressure.

Part VI: The First Game

There was some talk during the start of the season that Loville pretty much got the job by default, and that the 49ers still needed to find a halfback. However, Loville erased all doubt by having an absolutely fantastic 1995 season. Keep in mind that entering the 1995 season, in 5 seasons, he had no touchdowns. For some perspective on how unlikely this season was- picture the 2012 NFL Draft. Cyrus Gray got drafted by the Chiefs, and recently, was on the Falcons’ preseason roster before getting released.

Imagine if this season, Gray went off and not only won a starting job somewhere, but was pretty good along the way. Keep in mind that Gray was drafted and had a touchdown in his NFL career at one point, so even that is more likely than what happened to Loville back in 1995 with the 49ers.

It’s opening day at the Superdome against the New Orleans Saints, and the 49ers win the game 24-22. However, it’s not that easy. Early in the game, Steve Young got sacked by Renaldo Turnbull, and got briefly injured, though he would later come back in the game. This brought Elvis Grbac into the game at quarterback for San Francisco. The very first play, Grbac is intercepted and it becomes a pick six by Sean Lumpkin. The teams pretty much traded pick sixes; the Saints then went for 2 for some reason (why you would do that down 14-6, I’m not sure, but there’s no footage of the game, so I can’t say) and cut the 49er lead to just 8 points.

That’s where Loville came in. When Grbac needed help, he caught everything thrown his way. On the day, he had 6 receptions, and was targeted 6 times. On 3rd and 4, he had a critical 8-yard catch that extended a drive; the drive eventually led to a 49er field goal by Doug Brien. In the third quarter on a 3rd and 3, Loville had a huge 7-yard run that got a first down. This eventually set up a touchdown by Steve Young, who was back in the game after halftime. Every time Loville needed to come up big, he did. Was he a flashy player? No; he averaged just 3.3 YPC that season, and didn’t have a 100-yard game. But he was reliable and consistent. He finished that game with 49 yards on 14 carries, along with 37 receiving yards on 6 catches and 6 targets. He was the leading rusher for the entire game on either side (the Saints were only able to muster up 26 rushing yards, all coming courtesy of their second round pick from the year before, Mario Bates), and looked like the real deal.

Make no mistake- very early on into the season, Loville erased all doubt of being the starting halfback on the 49ers.

Part VII: 1995- A Game Changer for Receivers

The 1995 season was strange when it came to how the game changed in terms of receptions. In 1994, there were 3 players who recorded at least 97 receptions. One of them was Cris Carter on the Vikings, who set the NFL record at the time for most receptions in a season (122). The other 2 were Jerry Rice on the 49ers, who had 112, and Terance Mathis on the Falcons, who had 111. However, in 1995, those records would be thrown out the window.

In 1994, the record for most receptions in a season was 122 by Cris Carter. In 1995, there were 3 players who had at least 122 receptions. Herman Moore led the league in receptions that year with 123, while Cris Carter and Jerry Rice each had 122. In 1994, there were 3 players with 97 receptions, but in 1995, that number increased to 10. Alongside the 3 aforementioned players, you had Isaac Bruce (119), Michael Irvin (111), Brett Perriman (108), Eric Metcalf (104), Robert Brooks (102), Larry Centers (101), and Carl Pickens (99) all eclipsing that mark. In 1994, there were 12 players with at least 80 receptions. In 1995, that number jumped up to 17. Keep that in mind.

That season, Derek Loville had 87 receptions. Yes, a halfback had 87 receptions. It was the most of any halfback in the NFL that season, assuming we’re counting Larry Centers as a fullback (he’s the best receiving fullback of all-time, and had 101 receptions that season). Loville had 87 receptions, and led all halfbacks in this category… and quite frankly, it wasn’t even close. Only two other halfbacks that season had more than 67 receptions, and the next closest players to Loville were Amp Lee of the Minnesota Vikings (71) and Adrian Murrell of the New York Jets (71).

Even more impressive was that Loville was doing this while catching 79.1% of the passes thrown his way. Four out of five times, if Steve Young or Elvis Grbac threw a pass to Loville, he would catch it. While some of that has to do with the routes he’s running (obviously, he’s not going deep every time, or even running long routes every time; his longest reception of the season was 31 yards), it’s still impressive to display those hands. In 16 regular season games, Loville caught at least 66% of his passes 14 times, with the two exceptions being week 3 against the Patriots and week 16 against the Vikings. Other than that, he caught pretty much every pass thrown his way. He had more games with a 100% catch rate (3) than games below 66% (2). You could pretty much count on him to catch at least two out of every three passes each game, and then some.

The 1995 season was a game-changer for receivers, and even halfbacks who knew how to catch the ball. And Derek Loville was a big part of that.

Parts VII-X

Parts XI-XII

Parts XIII-XIV

Lost Leagues (Sundays)	Record Watch- Offense (Mondays)	Draft Scratchers (Tuesdays)	Record Watch- Defense (Wednesdays)	One Hit Wonders (Thursdays)	Weird Stat Threads (Fridays)
Part I: United Football League	Part I: Passing Yards	Part I: Roger Vick (NY Jets, 1987)	Part II: Sacks	Part I: Derek Loville (San Francisco, 1995)