Alex Golesh raves about Tennessee's young running backs

Tennessee got great production out of its running back room a year ago. That trend looks to continue not only this season for for several more to come given the Vols’ recruiting efforts on that front as of late.

Two true freshmen RBs are already impressing Vols offensive coordinator Alex Golesh. Four-star Dylan Sampson was the nation’s No. 394 overall prospect and the 31st-ranked running back, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average. Meanwhile, Justin Williams-Thomas checks in at 235th and 16th in those respective rankings.

First, here was Golesh at a press conference praising Sampson’s development as the slighter better between the two.

“Dylan, man, like a unique clone of Jabari in terms of being able to get the ball out in space. Really good hands, elite vision for a young guy. Like different than what I thought off of high school film. I liked the high school film. You just didn’t know he was going to have vision like he has. He’s a natural running back. He’s not big but he’s as fast as any back in this league. So our job with him is going to be to get him in space and and let him let him go hit home runs at whatever point that allows allows us to happen.”

He then moved on to Williams-Thomas, who’s body is forcing him to learn how to play a different way.

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“Justin, different back. Justin had to evolve and grow into that role. He’s bigger. He has learned how to play more physical. He’s still learning how to play like a true big back. And his growth has been a little bit slower than Dylan’s, but he’s shown monumental growth as well still. Again, with any freshman, until they get in there under the lights and and see what it actually is with no coaches on the field, it’s really hard to guess what they’re going to be. But he’s shown really good steps to growing.”

So plenty of room to grow, but Alex Golesh is very pleased with the first returns on his two true freshman backs. However, he also notes that pass protection is the biggest area to work on for the youngsters.

“So I’m happy with where both of those guys are. I think they can both help us in different ways. Again with with backs like Dylan and Justin, both being young guys, my main concern is always the protection part of it. You know there’s no redos on protecting the quarterback. So that’s the biggest focal point for those guys. Is making sure they’re good on the tempo, which we play picking up quarterback pressures and being able to protect the quarterback. If that part is good, those guys will both be able to help us this year.”