KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Dylan Sampson didn’t want to go to Tennessee. At least not at first.
“They were my second offer when I was a sophomore in high school, but they were off my list. I didn’t feel like it was a place I could grow and develop,” he said. “There was too much stuff going on.”
What stuff, exactly?
“You can look it up,” the running back from Geismar, La., said with a laugh. “We’re still dealing with the stuff from the last staff. It’s no disrespect or hate. We just never built a relationship after I got offered and I didn’t feel like they wanted me for real.”
When Tennessee elected to fire Jeremy Pruitt after a tip ignited an internal investigation that uncovered multiple Level I NCAA violations, Sampson’s view of the Vols changed. Tennessee hired Josh Heupel and in Sampson’s eyes, he gained another possible landing spot in the SEC.
He was still weighing his options on a visit in June 2021, when his host, then-sophomore Vols running back Jabari Small, got a FaceTime call from his mom. They’d only been talking a few moments when Heupel walked by.
“Trina Small!” he said, addressing Small’s mom and talking for a few moments.
“That was small, but it showed to me how much he was valuing trying to build relationships. And they valued me, too,” Sampson said in an interview with The Athletic this week.
When Tennessee was at its lowest point, fresh off hiring a coach some were hesitant to believe in, Sampson believed. He bought in when Heupel had only a vision.
Three seasons, 30 wins later and with a College Football Playoff game at Ohio State set for Saturday night, Sampson has proven integral in making that vision a reality. He enters the game owning five single-season school records and as the SEC Offensive Player of the Year.
The best offensive player in the @SEC.
End of discussion.
Congrats @dylans21527 on being named the @SEC Offensive Player of the Year by both the AP and the coaches!
📰 » https://t.co/SephP5VcEY#GBO pic.twitter.com/9bR4PrlrKE
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) December 11, 2024
“It was weird. Me and a lot of guys in my class blindly committed to a program that hadn’t played a game yet. He’s still trying to get guys to buy in and trust his vision,” Sampson said.
Looking back now, Sampson still isn’t sure why he believed without anything tangible to believe in as a four-star recruit and the seventh-highest rated prospect in Heupel’s first full recruiting class. He prayed about the decision. He leaned on his relationship with former running backs coach Jerry Mack, now the head coach at Kennesaw State. He had other offers from schools such as South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, NC State and Louisville.
“It was just a faith kind of thing,” Sampson said. “I took a chance.”
This season, that blind trust has paid off more than Sampson could have imagined.
His 22 rushing touchdowns are the most in school history, breaking a 95-year record. His 1,485 rushing yards are also a school record. With one more touchdown in Saturday’s game against Ohio State, he’ll tie Tim Tebow and Tre Mason for third-most single-season rushing touchdowns in SEC history, behind only Derrick Henry and Najee Harris. With a career mark of 35 touchdowns, Sampson needs three more to top Gene McEver (1928-31) as the school’s top rusher to find the checkerboards.
Sampson has speed and shiftiness backed by power and contact balance that make him exceedingly difficult to tackle in the open field. It’s earned him rave reviews from coaches who have faced the Vols this season, too.
“He breaks so many tackles,” a head coach said earlier this year for a scouting story in which anonymity was granted in exchange for candor. “People think the line is great but he creates explosive plays by breaking tackles.”
Just over 62 percent of his rushing yards this season (927) have come after contact, per Pro Football Focus. That’s seventh-most nationally this season. He has just five runs this season longer than 30 yards, 29th nationally. But he’s scored multiple times in seven games this year and added 19 catches in the passing game.
Stopping Tennessee’s offense is difficult but simple. Stop the running game, and the rest of it gets easier. Let Sampson and the running game get hot and the rest of the defense will be underwater in a hurry.
His play this season has lessened the load on first-year starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a redshirt freshman still adjusting to life under center in the SEC. Sampson’s heavy workload should continue on Saturday when the Vols go on the road to begin — and possibly end — their postseason run.
Heupel’s 2024 team leans on its defense. And Sampson. His 256 carries are ninth-most nationally, and his output has been consistent. He’s topped 90 yards in every game this year against Power 4 competition and has just one game over 150 yards. He racked up 178 yards in the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt that clinched the Vols’ Playoff bid.
“I don’t know if I even have the words to describe D-Samp and what he means to our team,” Heupel said. “He’s special, man. He’s played the position this year as well as anybody I’ve ever had.”
In Sampson’s freshman year, the Vols reached No. 1 in the CFP poll and won 11 games for the first time since 2001. They won a major bowl game (Orange Bowl over Clemson) for the first time since the program’s 1998 national title under Phillip Fulmer. Sampson scored six times and contributed as the offense’s third back.
As a sophomore, Sampson was a third of a three-headed monster alongside Small and Jaylen Wright that combined to rush for 2,092 yards. Sampson was second on the team in rushing and led the team with seven scores.
“That’s good on your body,” Sampson said. “And I knew all I had to do was take care of business and I’d be the starting running back this year.”
In the NIL and transfer portal era, though, commitment to a program isn’t a decision on signing day. It has to be made over and over.
Before Tennessee beat Iowa 35-0 in last year’s Citrus Bowl, multiple coaches from other major conference teams sent Sampson, he said, messages on Instagram inquiring about his interest in entering the portal.
He left them on read.
“I’m more of a grand scheme type of person. The things I think I can do, I have the best chance to accomplish here,” Sampson said. “I’m more of a long-term thinker. The best things, you’ve gotta wait for them.”
Said senior receiver Bru McCoy: “He’s one of those guys that he could have no touches and zero touchdowns, and he’d still be the same guy he is with 20. Him staying humble, grounded and not acting like he’s accomplishing what he’s accomplishing has done a lot for the team and seeing how to handle success. He’s an incredible teammate.”
The workload — and Sampson’s draft eligibility — beg the question: Is he playing his final games for Tennessee?
Faced with the question, Sampson flashed a wry smile once more.
“I’m with my team right now,” he said with a laugh.
