Dylan Sampson shares favorite moment, game from freshman season

Running back Dylan Sampson made an immediate impact last season as a freshman at Tennessee. As he looks back on his first year in college, there are a couple moments that stand out.

Firstly, Sampson highlighted the season finale against Vanderbilt in which he rushed for a season-best 131 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown run. He also mentioned a game against Missouri where he had 98 yards and a touchdown on just eight carries.

“It just felt like every run I was hitting was out the gate,” Sampson said of the game against the Tigers. “It was a good day on the ground for me and probably one of my bigger SEC games.”

A former four-star recruit, Sampson ranked as the No. 31 running back in the 2022 class according to the On3 Industry Rating, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He appeared in 10 games to finish with 397 yards and six touchdowns behind Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright.

Both Small and Wright return in 2023, so Sampson is slated to once again be part of a three-man rushing attack. The trio helped the Volunteers to rank sixth in the SEC this past season with 199.5 rushing yards per game.

It wasn’t just the running backs who proved a threat on the ground, however. Quarterback Hendon Hooker also ended the year with 430 yards rushing and five touchdowns. However, he has since moved on to the NFL as Joe Milton is set to take over as the starter.

Tennessee ranked No. 1 in the country last season in both scoring offense (46.1 points per game) and total offense (525.5 yards per game). It finished with its first 10-win season since 2007 and will hope to build upon that in coach Josh Heupel’s third year at the helm. With the departure of Hooker as well as receivers Jalin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman, the Volunteers have plenty to replace in the passing game but bring back their top three contributors on the ground.

If the way Dylan Sampson ended his freshman season at Tennessee is any indication, he’ll have a chance to make plenty more memories in 2023. Sampson stepped up over the final three games of the year to record 20 carries for 231 yards and two touchdowns, accounting for more than half of his yardage for the year.

Sampson will have the next couple of weeks to continue to develop at spring practice before Tennessee hosts its annual spring game on April 15.