Tennessee Football Position Group 2024 Season Review: Running Backs
The Vols were a top-10 rushing offense once again, but they got there in a very different way.
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As long as Josh Heupel is the head football coach at Tennessee the Volunteers are going to run the football well, this much I’m sure. While the vertical passing game and explosive plays through the air have dwindled over the past two seasons, the rushing attack for the Vols has remained as strong and consistent as ever.
This season, though, things were a little different for the Vols in this department. Not only did Tennessee have a new RBs coach in De’Rail Sims after Jerry Mack left for the Jacksonville Jaguars in the same role, but the three-back rotation was no more for the Vols in 2024. Indeed, star junior tailback Dylan Sampson was the workhorse and MVP of the Tennessee offense this season. Over the previous two seasons, it was a trio of backs leading the Vols with Sampson, Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small. Even in Heupel’s first year at Tennessee, it was a combination of Small, Wright and Tiyon Evans. In 2024, it was Sampson’s show on Rocky Top.
The former three-star recruit out of Louisiana kept the Volunteer offense afloat, especially in the second half of big-time games like against Alabama on the third Saturday in October. Sampson led the SEC in rushing as a whole. He had ten games this season where he ran for more than 100 yards. You could make a very good case that Sampson had the best individual season for a running back at Tennessee this century. Over half of his 1,491 yards on the ground this season came after contact. Perhaps the most impressive part about Sampson’s season was that he excelled every Saturday regardless of what position groups around him on offense – primarily the offensive line and wide receivers – struggled. Tennessee finished the regular season with ten-plus wins for the second time in the last three seasons and made the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. Without Sampson’s durability and dependability, none of that happens for the Vols this season.
Coming into the season, though, it wasn’t my expectation that Sampson would be asked to be the bell cow tailback for the Vols. Last spring, the expectation was that we’d see another trio rotation with Sampson, Cam Seldon and either Peyton Lewis or DeSean Bishop. However, due to multiple injuries in that room from the spring on that did not turn out to be the case. Lewis appeared in eight regular season games for the Vols. Bishop appeared in nine. Seldon, who many folks expected to have a breakout year alongside Sampson, appeared in just four and transferred to Virginia Tech this week. Without Sampson’s durability through twelve regular season games, the 2024 season could have gone very different for the Vols.
It’s interesting, though, how we think about the last two seasons of the Tennessee rushing attack. In 2023, the Vols finished No. 10 nationally in rushing. In 2024, the Vols finished No. 9. They were a top-10 rushing offense both seasons but got there in very different ways. What’s unique and impressive about Heupel is that he has now ten games with a top-10 rushing offense while the passing offense was a lot further down, and he’s won ten games with a top-10 passing offense while the rushing offense was a lot further down. However, the Vols had just seven rushing plays that went for 40-plus yards in 2024 with zero going for 60-plus yards or more. Last season, the Vols had 20 rushing plays that went for at least 40-plus yards. The 2024 version was more consistent, but the 2023 rushing attack was more explosive and created more big-time plats than what we saw out of the room in 2024.
A lot of that has to do with Wright moving onto the NFL. It’s impossible to know if Wright could have handled a workload like Sampson in 2023. However, we do know his 2023 season registered a higher PFF grade than Sampson’s in 2024, just barely at 91.0 to 90.2, respectively. In fact, Wright’s 2023 season is the best rushing grade for any Tennessee tailback in Heupel’s four years in Knoxville. Wright averaged 7.4 YPA, the highest of any Volunteer tailback in the last four seasons. The difference was, though, just how many more carries, and touchdowns, separated Sampson and Wright over the last two seasons. Sampson had 258 carries and 22 touchdowns to Wright’s 136 carries and four touchdowns. Both the 2023 and 2024 Tennessee rushing attacks were top-10 nationally but the seasons for their top tailbacks could not have looked more different.
Tennessee has run the ball well under Heupel and will still run the ball well in 2025 even without Sampson and Seldon in the fold. Lewis and Bishop both flashed in 2024 and averaged over 5 YPC and scored six touchdowns. They both graded well in PFF and both should be solid contributors in 2025 for the Vols if they can stay healthy. You also are adding another former in-state star in Duane Morris out of Oakland to this room and, perhaps, maybe even another depth piece out of the transfer portal. It’s fair to say it would be a gigantic surprise to not see more of the even rotation we saw in the first three seasons under Heupel in 2025 with the youth in that room.
Nico Iamaleava is a quarterback and doesn’t technically qualify here, but I think the quarterback kind of has to in this offense. Tennessee was No. 1 nationally in scoring in 2022 for a multitude of reasons. One of them, though, was how good Hendon Hooker was running the ball. In 2022, the current Detroit Lions quarterback registered an 83.7 rushing grade – the highest of any QB under Heupel at UT. Hooker carried the ball 76 times and averaged 7.4 YPC. Iamaleava found his footing a bit running the football down the stretch this season, as he did nearly total 500 yards with his legs. However, he registered just a 53.5 PFF grade on the ground. Iamaleava was a really good quarterback from the second half of the Alabama game onward this season, but it’s fair to say after four years that for Tennessee’s offense to be elite the quarterback has to be elite running the football, too. Iamaleava showed he could be that guy in the CFP against Ohio State as he carried the ball 20 times for two scores in the blowout loss. Part of the growth for this offense in 2025 is Iamaleava using his legs even more, especially with Sampson moving on to the NFL. If Tennessee’s offense gets back on track as a whole next season, that probably means Iamaleava becomes a huge, consistent threat with his legs in more games than not.
Overall, it was another great season for the Tennessee rushing attack. Even with Seldon not factoring in like most expected, Sampson was unbelievable. Bishop and Lewis showed they’re capable of being really good in this offense, too. Iamaleava got more comfortable running with the football as the season went on. A lot is going to look different for Tennessee’s offense in 2025, and that includes this position group for sure.
Thursday Update On The Chase Thomas Podcast
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