Dan Fleser
Dylan Sampson convened a block party on his behalf Saturday night simply by being Dylan Sampson. Tennessee’s running back didn’t have time to plead with his teammates or indulge any Tom Sawyer-like persuasion to gain their assistance.
Their reaction had to be spontaneous when Sampson was initially stopped for little gain after a fourth-quarter handoff at Kentucky’s six-yard line. When the play wasn’t blown dead by the game officials, the other 10 Vols on the field immediately rushed to Sampson’s aid. They surrounded him – even quarterback Nico Iamaleava – and pushed him forward into the Wildcats’ defensive front. The convoy conveyed Sampson nearly five full yards until he tumbled into the end zone under the weight of their good will for a record-setting touchdown, capping the Vols’ 28-18 victory.
“I’m going to cherish that moment forever,” Sampson said.
The primary reason was the TD was Sampson’s 19th of the season, which set a new single-season program record. The previous mark was set by Gene McEver, Tennessee’s first All-American, back in 1929. General Neyland said McEver was “the best player I ever coached . . . the best I ever saw.”
Sampson, who rushed for a career-high 142 yards and two scores, imagined McEver’s era being one of physical dominance that placed great value on running the football. The manner in which Sampson broke the record, with all of those blockers summoning their brute force on his behalf, was a throwback tribute worth savoring as well.
“A play like that,” Sampson said during a Vol Network interview. “I think it just shows how much love we have for each other and how much we want each other to succeed because it felt like everybody wanted me to get that record just as much or even more than I did. That was real.”
Transfer tight end Miles Kitselman is new to the team. But Sampson, as much as anyone, has enabled him to appreciate not only what happened on that TD run but why.
“Just for me to be here to tell my kids one day that I played with Dylan Sampson,” Kitselman said, “I blocked for him, I was there when he broke the record, that just means the world to me and that I could be part of it.”
If only the Vols could rally around all their offensive intentions the way they did Sampson’s quest. The misplays, penalties and inconsistencies that have conspired against their best performance again dogged them, however.
This seemed like a prime opportunity for a supreme performance. The Wildcats were missing eight starters due to injury and lost two more during the game. Furthermore, a Neyland Stadium crowd of 101,915 was in full voice, amplified not artificially but by the very real “Dark Mode” setting.
If anything, the latest conspiracy was made worse by Max Gilbert missing three field goal attempts. Including the previous game against Alabama, the redshirt freshman has missed five of his last six attempts.
Even Sampson couldn’t stay clear of this trend. He repeated what happened against Alabama, ending a promising early drive with a fumble. Against the Wildcats, it happened at their 22-yard line.
UT coach Josh Heupel’s lament began with his on-field SEC Network post-game interview, in which he said: “There’s just so much more left out there for us and we’ve got to find a way to get on the right side of it.”
During his Vol Network interview, he thanked host Bob Kesling for “turning me back to the positive” only to later reverse pivot back to what was vexing him.
“We were really close on making some huge explosive plays and changing the game early,” Heupel said. “Got to sync everything up. I’m tired of saying that. Let’s go put the pieces of the puzzle together.”
A big piece – Tennessee’s defense – remained in place despite allowing a first-quarter touchdown, its first of the season, and 166 total yards. The defenders produced two turnovers in the third quarter, which corresponded with two UT touchdowns to erase a 10-7 halftime deficit. James Pearce Jr. sacked Brock Vandagriff during that pivotal period, knocking Kentucky’s starting quarterback out of the game.
“I consider myself a tough guy,” said Heupel, a former national champion QB and Heisman Trophy runner-up. “I’m not sure I’d want to be back in the pocket with those guys coming at me.”
To its credit, the offense came through with the closing act. Nursing a three-point lead, it drove 91 yards in 13 plays over 5 minutes and 14 seconds for Sampson’s score with 4:55 remaining. Before moonlighting as a blocker, Iamaleava completed all five of his pass attempts – two of them on third down – for 49 yards and rushed twice for nine yards.
Imagine if Tennessee summoned a few more drives like that. Sampson, the Vols’ great runner and aggregator, was doing so afterward.
“That game, we really could’ve had about 40-some points; we left it out there,” he said. “Slowly, but surely we’re going to get it right.”
All together, they will continue pushing for it.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters, U.S Basketball Writers and Greater Knoxville Sports Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.