Tennessee’s running back room has had a big make over

Tennessee junior running back Dylan Sampson has been waiting his turn to be come the featured tailback in Josh Heupel’s offense.

The Louisiana native, who is one of the team’s most vocal leaders, gets his chance in 2024 in the lead chair. Sampson suddenly is the old man in a talented room with a lot of youth and a new coach in Derail Sims .

Our position previews continue with a look at Tennessee’s running back position.

Last season

All pre-season last year, the hype was around Jaylen Wright. The North Carolina native, who’s now a Miami Dolphin, was more focused than ever and most felt like he would have a really good year.

The reality is that Wright had a great year rushing for over 1000 yards and averaged an amazing 7.4 yards a carry. Wright was durable. He was a big play thread and he ran more physical last year than at any point in his career.

Sampson ended up the second leading rusher with 604 yards an a unit high 11 touchdown runs.

Sampson got the start in the bowl game and was really good with with 133 yards on 20 carries.

The third member of the three headed monster was Jabari Small who had 475 yards in 11 games.

Tennessee’s run game under Heupel has always been good and is the straw that stirs the drink for the offense. Tennessee led the SEC in rushing last season and has rushed for over 2000 yards for 3 straight year, A feat that hasn’t been accomplished since a 6 year stretch from 1989-1995.

The room

Dylan Sampson — Jr, 5-11, 201
Cam Seldon — So, 6-2, 222
Peyton Lewis — Fr, 6-1, 210
Desean Bishop — r-Fr, 5-10, 200
Khalifa Keith — So, 6-1, 239

By the numbers

Biggest question

What kind of help does Tennessee have behind Sampson. Cam Seldon is talented and flashed well in the bowl win over Iowa, but Seldon is returning from shoulder surgery. The question with Seldon is pass protection and when will he be healthy enough for contact this fall.

Peyton Lewis is a freshman that this staff high on. But he’s a freshman and he’s recovering from off-season surgery so he has yet to go through a Tennessee practice. So the jury is still out on whether or not Lewis can be in the rotation.

Desean Bishop had his best spring and many around the Knoxville area saw how good he was every week for Karns High School. Bishop had his best spring this year and is expected to have a real role this fall. Bishop was so good in the spring that Tennessee chose not to pursue a loss at running back fr the entire season.

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