What Dylan Sampson said about breaking Tennessee's single-season rushing record
Dylan Sampson broke Tennessee’s single-season rushing record with his 178 yards in the 36-23 win at Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon, giving him 1,485 on the season, breaking the previous mark held by Travis Stephens with 1,464 yards in 2001.
Sampson also set a new program record for single-season rushing touchdowns with 22 and has tied Tennessee’s modern record for career rushing touchdowns with 35.
Here’s what Sampson said during his postgame press conference after the win in Nashville about his latest, and biggest, accomplishment to date:
When he became aware that he broke Tennessee’s single-season rushing record
“I think my coach came up, Coach Sims, told me after. It’s a great accomplishment, along with all the other things. But truly a blessing. Got a lot more to accomplish, though, you know?”
If he was surprised he wasn’t a finalist for the Doak Walker Award
“I mean, stuff like that, you can’t let it validate you. I know what I do week in and week out on the field. Shout out to people that they pick. I like their games, but I know what I bring to the table. And there’ll be people who recognize that.”
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“Yeah, it was great to have him back. He’s always going forward, always positive. He just runs hard. He runs angry. That’s that’s his mindset. There’s so much trust when he goes in the game too. So it’s good to see him back in action, back in pads.”
If he felt like Tennessee would lean heavily on him in the second half at Vanderbilt with Bru McCoy, Dont’e Thornton and Peyton Lewis all out of the game
“Yeah. The first drive after halftime, to get a lot of time off the clock, that was a great drive put together by the offense. And after that, I knew kind of the game plan we was going do is just try to milk this clock while also continue trying to score, but kind of our identity. We play hard football here.”
Tennessee seemingly clinching a College Football Playoff spot with the win at Vanderbilt
“Yeah. I think you don’t really you don’t really realize until we get back in the locker room and everybody’s really excited. And I have to take a little time to realize what we actually got ahead of us. Like, we in it and it’s a lot more to accomplish, but that feeling is unbeatable. This game matters so much. Vandy played hard. But our team played hard and we responded. So I can’t wait to get back to work.”
How beat up he was in the game against Vanderbilt, Tennessee offense having skill players that are banged up
“Yeah, that’s just the nature of it. I mean, Week 12, whatever week it is in the season, you’re never going to feel perfect. So if you can go, you you find a way to go. And if you can’t, trust the guys that’d be able to step up. But we got a little time to get our bodies right, get ready for what we got ahead of us.”
