A year after Jaylen Wright became Tennessee’s first 1,000-yard rusher in eight seasons, Dylan Sampson is giving it an early run of his own.
Sampson has been an integral part of the 2-0 start for the Volunteers, rushing a combined 32 times for 256 yards against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and North Carolina State. His impressive 8.0 yards per carry has been accompanied by five touchdown runs, with two of those coming in Saturday night’s 51-10 pulverizing of the Wolfpack.
“I think it’s just my preparation, the trust I have in my teammates and the trust they have in me,” Sampson said Saturday night in Charlotte when asked about his quick start to the season. “If things don’t go right, just reset and don’t press too hard. I try to let the game come to me.”
Sampson’s 128.0 rushing yards per game so far ranks ninth nationally.
The 5-foot-11, 201-pound junior from Baton Rouge made his first career start for the Volunteers in January’s Citrus Bowl, rushing 20 times for 133 yards in the 35-0 defeat of Iowa, so this Saturday night’s contest against visiting Kent State (7:45 on the SEC Network) is an opportunity for a fourth straight 100-yard performance. Sampson took over in Orlando for Wright, who had opted out after carrying 137 times for 1,013 yards during the regular season.
In this past Saturday’s win, Sampson also shared the team-high with three receptions that went for 37 yards, which gave him a career-best 169 all-purpose yards.
“We’ve got great trust in Dylan,” Vols fourth-year coach Josh Heupel said. “He’s a great leader for us. You can put him in any position, and he’s a guy who will have success — pass protection, as a runner, out in space as a receiver, swing passes, whatever it might be.
“He’s got a great skill set.”
Sampson’s skill set displayed itself on Tennessee’s second possession, when the Vols faced a third-and-14 at N.C. State’s 28-yard line. Redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava dropped back and then flipped a shuffle pass to Sampson, who weaved his way for 17 yards and a first down at the 11.
Two plays after that conversion, Sampson raced in for a 9-yard touchdown to open the game’s scoring.
“I’ve repped that play so many times,” Sampson said of his catch and run. “You’ve got to get a feel for the defense. It’s a feel play. When you turn your back to the defense, you don’t know what is going to happen.
“Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad, but you’ve got to make stuff happen.”
Making stuff happen has never been an issue for Sampson, who rushed for 1,001 yards and 6.1 yards a carry during his first two seasons at Tennessee. The Vols are deeper at tailback this year, with redshirt freshman DeSean Bishop having added 42 yards on 10 carries against the Wolfpack, but Sampson’s experience and leadership are very much in demand right now.
“D-Samp just does what he does,” Iamaleava said. “He’s one of the best backs in the country. We know when we get the ball in his hands that anything can happen at any moment.”
Two Vols honored
Iamaleava and fifth-year senior center Cooper Mays were honored by the Southeastern Conference on Monday, with Iamaleava earning the league’s top freshman for a second consecutive week and with Mays earning offensive lineman of the week for the second time in his career.
Mays did not commit a penalty or allow a quarterback hit on an offense that compiled 460 yards, including 249 on the ground. The 6-4, 310-pounder has now gone 16 consecutive games without allowing a sack.
Iamaleava completed 16 of 23 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns. He did throw the first two interceptions of his college career, but he also rushed eight times for 65 yards and scored from 31 yards out.
Early penalties
Tennessee went on a 30-0 run Saturday night, turning a 7-3 contest into a 37-3 runaway.
The only setback during that surge was a personal-foul penalty that seventh-year senior linebacker Keenan Pili committed in the third quarter on a late hit.
“You’ve got to play smart football, and you can’t do things that hurt yourself,” Heupel said Monday in his weekly news conference. “Keenan wasn’t trying to be egregious on his. He thought the running back was still coming at him, but we’ve got to be smart.
“We’ve had a couple of penalties the first couple of weeks on special teams, which has hurt in terms of trying to change the field-position game.”
Praising Pearce
James Pearce Jr. only played a handful of snaps against the Mocs and has just one tackle and two quarterback hurries through two games.
That does not, according to Heupel, reflect that the junior edge rusher has been disappointing.
“He’s played really well,” Heupel said. “He’s applied pressure to the quarterback. He just hasn’t gotten home, but he’s been disruptive. He’s done a really good job in the run game, and he did a good job the other night as a dropper in some of our pressure packages and matching out the skill personnel in space.
“In this game, you just keep plugging away. Stats are stats. At the end of the day, it’s about wins and losses and continuing to execute your assignment.”
Odds and ends
Heupel on Tennessee’s X account posting a video of him Saturday night being animated on the sideline: “I am still a kid at heart.” … The Vols have never played Kent State. … Heupel anticipates sophomore running back Cam Seldon and junior linebacker Kalib Perry, who were inactive against the Wolfpack, being available this week. … Next Saturday’s game at Oklahoma as been picked up by ABC and will have a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.