Cam Seldon was never a true running back in high school.
He sure looked the part Monday.
Tennessee’s 6-foot-2, 222-pound freshman from Browns Store, Virginia, received his most extensive action of the 2023 season during the Citrus Bowl against Iowa and delivered with a 13-carry, 55-yard performance as the Volunteers rolled to a 35-0 laugher. Seldon spent his first year in Knoxville buried on the depth chart behind Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small and Dylan Sampson, but Wright and Small opted out of the contest inside Camping World Stadium, leaving him as the backup to Sampson.
“I felt like I did what was required, but I feel like I can do more,” Seldon said before a gathering of reporters afterward. “It was really my first time to go into a game like that, and I had to get used to the flow. I can do more, because I hold myself to a higher standard.”
The most overlooked aspect to Monday’s mauling was that Sampson and Seldon combined on 33 rushes for 188 yards against a Hawkeyes defense that ranked fifth nationally, and Tennessee did so without three starting offensive linemen. Guards Javontez Spraggins and Andrej Karic didn’t play, and neither did left tackle John Campbell Jr., so Cooper Mays and Gerald Mincey were accompanied by the persevering senior trio of Dayne Davis, Ollie Lane and Jackson Lampley.