Volunteer Country

What Could Dylan Sampson Bring From The Backfield?

The Tennessee Volunteers have some nice depth in the running back department. With a year under his belt, Dylan Sampson could become a top force from it.

Brady Penn

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Thursday afternoon, the Tennessee Volunteers participated in their second spring scrimmage ahead of next Saturday's Orange and White game. Possibly the biggest takeaway from the scrimmage was that these young guys could make plays in head coach Josh Heupel's electric system. Chief among that group is sophomore running back Dylan Sampson.

Sampson is coming into his second year in Knoxville after seeing action as a Freshman on Tennessee's 11-win Orange Bowl-winning squad. He a 5-11 and 190 pounds with a bunch of speed, hailing from Baton Rouge. Being clocked in at 23 MPH on the catapult tracking system, Sampson is as good of a speed back as you will find.

Dylan had a building block to go off of entering this spring, as he was named the SEC Freshman of the Week in the regular season finale, rushing for 131 yards on just 12 carries, with a touchdown to boot.

When asked about the rising sophomore's performance on Thursday, Heupel said, "(Sampson) made some people miss and did a great job pressing double-teams." With that added value in protection, Sampson's value increases even more. 

In a more general statement about the team's younger backs, Heupel added, "We are going to need them all. There are times where you stay healthy for a long period of time. You never know when your opportunity is going to come. We are going to need all of these guys throughout the course of the season. With competition, iron sharpens iron. We are going to need that."

Dylan is currently projected as the team's third running back behind a couple of older guys, senior Jabari Small and junior Jaylen Wright. However, if the young Dutchtown High School product can produce early on the way he did in late November against Vanderbilt, the sky will be the limit, both for Sampson personally and for Heupel's offense. 

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Brady Penn
BRADY PENN

Brady Penn is a writer who has spent multiple years covering sports for multiple publications. Starting with "The Clarion", Brevard College's school publication, where he won an award for Sportswriting from the North Carolina Collegiate Media Association. Brady continues his work with The Clarion, as well as writing for SI's Volunteer Country and writing Braves pieces for SportsTalkATL.com. Brady is a rising Senior at Brevard, where he plays Football and does Play-by-Play broadcasting for BC Baseball, Men's/Women's Basketball and Softball.

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