Dylan Sampson’s outstanding season shows how Tennessee coach Josh Heupel can adjust his offensive approach, moving away from the fast-paced style he’s used for years.
Sampson has more than lived up to expectations, playing a key role in helping the seventh-ranked Volunteers make it into the newly expanded College Football Playoff.
Even better?
The running back, who powers through defenders like a quick-moving bowling ball, is feeling rested after the beating he took leading the Southeastern Conference in rushing yards. He also set five school records at a program known for producing top running backs.
“I feel great,” Sampson said Monday. “This time off has been good to my body, probably the best I’ve felt all season. You know, legs feel fresh. Every day counts.”
On Saturday night, the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Year will get a chance to show how healthy he is when Tennessee (10-2, No. 7 CFP) faces sixth-ranked Ohio State (10-2, No. 6 CFP) in the first round.
Ohio State has one of the best defenses against the run, ranking seventh nationally, allowing just 96.8 rushing yards per game.
Tennessee counters with Sampson, leading the SEC’s top rushing offense, which averages 232 yards per game. Sampson rushed for a school-record 1,485 yards on 256 carries. He also set a program record with 22 rushing touchdowns, breaking a 95-year-old record.
Heupel credits Sampson’s consistent work ethic, both on and off the field, for his growth since arriving at Tennessee in 2022. Sampson worked behind Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small, who are now in the NFL, before becoming the starter. Heupel believes Sampson was ready for the workload he has taken on this season.
“You watch the tape,” Heupel said. “He’s done a great job of creating big plays, explosive plays, making people miss. But he’s done a great job of understanding, you know, when it’s not clean, getting his pads down and going plus-two at the end of the runs. But he plays great without the ball in his hands as well. And a huge part of our success as a football team.”
Sampson, who is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, believes that Heupel has adapted his coaching to the strengths of his players.
Tennessee’s offense was one of the fastest in the country during Heupel’s first three seasons, running plays so quickly that defenses had trouble keeping up.
This season, focusing more on Sampson has helped the offense by controlling the ball and the clock. Freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava made his first college start in the Citrus Bowl on January 1, leading Tennessee to a dominant win over Iowa.
“You got to find, you know, what works game to game, week to week with this group of people and whatever that looks like to get it done to win,” Sampson said.
Sampson is coming off one of his best games, running for a career-high 178 yards on 25 carries in Tennessee’s win over Vanderbilt.
That performance gave him the school’s single-season rushing record, surpassing the 1,464 yards set by Travis Stephens in 2001. It was also Sampson’s 10th 100-yard game of the season, just one shy of the school record of 11 set by Jay Graham in 1995.
Center Cooper Mays has blocked for many of Sampson’s runs and has watched him grow with a work ethic focused on doing things the “right way.” All the yards, touchdowns, and records?
“That’s a result of all the work that he’s put in,” Mays said.
Sampson ranks fourth in the Football Bowl Subdivision and fifth in SEC single-season history with 22 rushing touchdowns. He scored at least one touchdown in 11 straight games this season and set a school record with 132 points scored.
He also ranks second in school history in rushing yards per game with 123.8, behind only Jay Graham, who averaged 130.7 yards in 1995, with Peyton Manning as the quarterback.
Sampson praised Ohio State’s defense, noting how its line and safeties support the run game. But he believes there will be opportunities to make plays.
“There’s opportunity to make plays, but you’ve got to make them,” Sampson said.
