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There was still time to come back.
Tennessee trailed rival Florida 10-0 midway through the third quarter and the Volunteers were floundering, being outplayed and outworked by the hated Gators.
Neyland Stadium was hushed, but on the sideline, Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson was pacing back and forth, clapping his hands, imploring his teammates that the game was far from over, and telling anyone who would listen, from student trainers to head coach Josh Heupel, that he wanted the football.
Heupel listened, and over the next quarter and a half of football, Sampson took over.
Tennessee drove 75 yards on their next possession. Sampson gained 67 of them, including a 6-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-1 that cut the Gators’ lead to 3 points.
In sum, Sampson totaled 88 yards on 15 touches over the final quarter and a half plus overtime, scoring 3 touchdowns, including the game-winner in the extra period, in leading Tennessee to a 23-17 overtime victory, just the 3rd Tennessee win over Florida in the past 20 years.
“That football game wasn’t going to be decided without Dylan having his say about how it ended,” Tennessee corner Jermod McCoy remembered. “That’s just who he is as a player.”
On a night when so much seemed to be going wrong for Tennessee, Sampson found a way to make things right.
Sampson’s consistent excellence has been the foundation of a special season on Rocky Top, which continues Saturday night when the Volunteers visit Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff (8 pm, ABC). The Buckeyes are favored by 7.5 points, via DraftKings Sportsbook.
Sampson has rushed for over 100 yards in 11 games, a school record. He finished the regular season with 1,485 yards, breaking Travis Stephens’ school record of 1,464. Sampson has 22 rushing touchdowns entering Saturday night’s Playoff game in Columbus, also a school record and tied for 5th-most in SEC history. Sampson was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, 3rd-Team AP All-American, and 2nd-Team FWAA All-American.
Somehow, being the best running back in the SEC wasn’t enough for Sampson to be named a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, which honors the best running back in college football. That snub seems absurd to Heupel, who was left without many words when addressing Sampson’s meaning to the Vols on a media call this week.
“I don’t think I have the right words to describe D-Samp,” Heuepl said. “What he means to our team, as a player and a leader. There are some great players up for awards, but I don’t think anybody has played the position better than he has this year.”
Sampson’s journey to SEC superstar pacing the sidelines and demanding the ball in big games started back back in Geismar, Louisiana. That’s where he caught the eye of Guy Mistretta, the football coach at Dutchtown High.
“I met him my first year at Dutchtown,” Mistretta told SDS by phone this week. “Dylan was on an 8th-grade team and we heard about him. I went to watch him play and he came right up to me after the game. He introduced himself and said he was excited to play for me. You don’t often see a kid in 8th grade with that type of confidence and big personality,” Mistretta recalled.
Dutchtown is a big school in the greater Baton Rouge area with a proud football tradition. Under Mistretta, the Griffins have posted a string of playoff appearances and never suffered a losing season. Development is prioritized, and even good players often don’t see the field until well into their sophomore seasons.
Sampson was different.
“Dylan was one of our first players — still one of our only players — to play and contribute all 4 years for us. It’s hard to play as a freshman. But we had an injury early in the season and by midyear, he was playing quite a bit for us. I think it mattered too because halfway through his senior year, Dylan broke Eddie Lacy’s record for most rushing yards by a Louisiana high school football player.”
Sampson’s speed set him apart then and still does. Sampson isn’t a player you catch when he reaches the second level.
But his commitment to team football resonates most with teammates and coaches.
“It’s just his work-ethic,” Tennessee All-American Cooper Mays told SDS. “When you get to our level of football, everybody is good. What makes you different? With Dylan, it’s the way he cares about every detail.”
Heupel agreed.
“He is such a special player,” Heupel told the media after Tennessee’s Playoff securing victory over rival Vanderbilt last month. Sampson had 178 yards in Tennessee’s comeback victory, forcing Vanderbilt to load the box and opening up the passing game for quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who made the Commodores pay with 4 touchdown passes.
“D-Samp does the stuff that makes you a winning team,” Heupel told the media this week. “He plays just as hard and just as great without the ball in his hands. And talk about, when the ball is in his hands, making things happen. Dynamic plays, muddy 3s and 4s (yard gains). He is a guy that loves football, right? So that means he’s committed to being committed to being good. It’s watching the tape. It’s the extra rep when he misses a cut. It’s the weight room. It’s all those things.”
Sampson’s competitiveness is what Mistretta remembers.
“Dylan loves to compete. When he was a junior, he was worried about missing our summer ball, which is a mandatory deal where we have 3-a-day practices and an overnight camp to come together as a team. He had been invited to come to Oregon and run in the Junior Olympics and he was still worried about missing football. I told him, ‘I think we can make an exception for the Junior Olympics.’ So he went out and won the 200 meters and finished second in the 100.”
Sampson’s desire to compete and his commitment to becoming a complete back were on display in multiple Vols wins this season, but the first Tennessee touchdown drive against Florida and a drive to close the first half of what was a tight game at Oklahoma stick in the mind.
Against the Sooners, Heupel turned to Sampson late in the first half, after the teams exchanged turnovers. With a 12-3 lead, there was no need for the Vols to push the envelope. The last thing Heupel wanted was another turnover to bring the sellout crowd in Norman back into the game. Sampson delivered, carrying the ball on all 8 of Tennessee’s plays on a 46 yard touchdown drive that all but put the game to bed at halftime.
“Whenever Tennessee needed a play on offense, Dylan Sampson made it. I don’t think people appreciate how difficult that is when every defensive coordinator in our league knows he’s coming. It was as dominant a season as I’ve seen by a running back in our league in a long time,” a veteran SEC defensive coordinator told SDS.
Sampson possesses a rare blend of speed and physicality and his consistency is the formula Tennessee rode to the Playoff.
“I don’t know where we are this year without him,” Heupel told the media following Tennessee’s selection to the Playoff. “You watch him. He’s done a great job creating big plays, explosive plays, making people miss. But he also has a great understanding of angles and running when it isn’t clean. He gets his pads down. He gets 2 extra yards at the end of a tough run. Obviously, he’s a huge part of our success.”
Now the Vols want more, and they enter the Playoff playing their best football, thanks to a rock-solid defense that ranks in the top 10 nationally in nearly every statistical category and improved quarterback play from Iamaleava, who is only a redshirt freshman.
“With their defense and Dylan, all they need to make a deep Playoff run is the Iamaleava they’ve seen the last couple weeks. It isn’t a question of talent for the quarterback. It’s when does it come together? That makes them dangerous,” the SEC coordinator said.
As for Sampson, he’s gone from quiet player who led Dutchtown by example to one of the most vocal players in the Tennessee locker room. It’s a development Mistretta has delighted in watching from afar.
“He was always a quiet kid. He always had a smile on his face, but he wasn’t loud when we had him. He led by example. But he was the first kid I ever had whose 40 time was lower than his GPA,” Mistretta said with a laugh. “He’s a good person and people gravitate to him naturally, but as a former coach, it’s been fun to see him thrive in taking on a leadership role. I’ve enjoyed the videos of him giving pep talks before games, picking up teammates. It’s been fun to see him evolve in that way.”
Now Tennessee will look to Sampson to lead them past Ohio State.
“There’s an expectation from our staff and our players. Making the Playoff was a goal, but it was an expectation to be in this,” Heupel said this week. “And that comes from the work everybody put in who we have in the building. I’m proud of these guys for executing and putting us in a position to be there. Now, the next season starts. What are we gonna do with it?”
One guess as to what Tennessee will do?
Give the football to Dylan Sampson.
If Sampson’s historic season continues, there’s a strong chance Tennessee will keep playing, too.
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Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
