Dylan Sampson makes Tennessee football history with touchdown

Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson made some Volunteer football history in the fourth quarter against Kentucky on Saturday night. And it came via a notable assist from his offensive line.

Sampson, upon punching in his 19th rushing touchdown of the season, broke a 95-year-old record for single season rushing touchdowns, held by Gene McEver. But Sampson likely wouldn’t have scored on the specific play without riding the wave of his offensive linemen to the endzone.

Taking an inside handoff inside the 10, Sampson ran into a thicket of his own blockers and defenders before spinning left and finding more resistance. But that wouldn’t stop him, nor his linemen, who turned the whole ordeal into a rugby-like scrum. Tight ends, receivers, and even quarterback Nico Iamaleava joined in.

And it resulted in shuttling Sampson across the goal line for a record-breaking score.

THE PUSH, TOUCHDOWN pic.twitter.com/YEOHlOXcEv

— gmannVOLS (@gmannVOLS) November 3, 2024

With the score, Tennessee took a 10-point lead with around five minutes remaining.

Sampson’s scoring helped Tennessee overcome some 1st half struggles

Trailing 10-7 and pushing to get a last-second throw at the end zone to end the first half, the clock ran out on Tennessee’s offense, leaving head coach Josh Heupel perplexed.

But it appeared the Volunteers had ample time — two seconds — to rapidly snap the ball and either run a play or, perhaps, attempt to spike it and run another play with one second remaining.

Instead, as the refs wound the clock after spotting the ball after a first down, the Tennessee offensive line wasn’t down into their stances. By the time the group was set and Iamaleava called for the snap, the two seconds had run off and it was halftime.

Speaking with SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic on the field right after, Heupel intimated it was the fault of the officials and not his offense for the game operation shortcoming.

“Not sure man,” Heupel said about what happened. “They didn’t clear and we were ready to snap the football.”

Replay of the non-play showed the ref standing over the ball with time for the Tennessee offense to get set before he signalled for the clock to start. At the point he signals for the clock to run, Tennessee is allowed to snap the ball.

But the Volunteers offensive line and quarterback took a few ticks too long to get the play going.

And Heupel, knowing harping on it wouldn’t change anything, acknowledged it was on to the second half as Tennessee tries to overcome a deficit.

“It doesn’t matter at this point. We gotta go get ready to play the next 30 minutes,” Heupel said.