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Dylan Sampson reflects on hamstring injury that sidelined him in playoff loss at Ohio State

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 9 hours•

GrantRamey

Dylan Sampson
USA TODAY IMAGES/Steve Roberts

Make no mistake, if Dylan Sampson could have done more for Tennessee at Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, he would have. 

“In a moment like that,” Sampson said during his media session at the NFL Scouting Combine on Friday, “the opportunity we had, just to get in the playoffs, it was hard not to being able to play for my team. 

“People from the outside looking in thinking I wasn’t playing strong for my team. But that just wasn’t the case. If I could have went, I would have been out there.”

Sampson carried just two time for six yards in the 42-17 loss at Ohio Stadium on December 21 in the first round of the new 12-team College Football Playoff. 

Dylan Sampson’s record-breaking season: 1,491 yards, 22 touchdowns

He said Friday it was a lingering hamstring issue that sidelined him in the biggest game of the season. Sampson was hurt in the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt three weeks earlier. 

“A lot of people thought I got hurt in that (Ohio State) game,” Sampson said. “No, I was dealing with a hamstring injury from Vandy. It was lingering.”

Sampson ran for a season-high 178 yards at Vanderbilt, putting an exclamation point on his record-setting season. He broke Tennessee’s single-season rushing record, finishing with 1,491 yards, and shattered the single-season touchdown record with 22. 

“End of the Vandy game, (he) got dinged up,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after the loss at Ohio State, “and it was soft tissue. And he had been out the first couple weeks and got back with us. Started building him through the week. Felt like he was in a good spot.

“Anticipated him not having the same type of load that he normally would have. Just early in the game kind of retweaked it and wasn’t available there for a while.”

‘I really didn’t want to get nobody else hurt and further injure myself’

Even Sampson himself said in the days before the game that he felt “great” after the extra time off between the Vanderbilt game and the trip to Ohio State for the playoff game. 

“It’s probably the best I have felt all season,” Sampson said at the time. “My legs feel fresh. Every day counts.”

The only thing he didn’t have in practice the week of the game was contact, though.  

“I was trying to talk positive, stuff like that,” Sampson said on Friday. “And I tried to go out there and give my all for my team, but it just wasn’t going.”

That’s when he had to make a decision more for his teammates than himself. 

“I really would’ve been a liability out there,” Sampson said. “And I really didn’t want to get nobody else hurt and further injure myself.”

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