SEC analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy sees a particular Tennessee player as the Vols’ “ticket to the top of the sport” despite the offensive troubles that emerged during the loss to Arkansas.
On Monday’s episode of the Always College Football podcast, McElroy gave his take on Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s struggles that he saw in the game from Saturday. McElroy sees Tennessee’s offense at a bit of a crossroads but believes that the Vols do have a veteran who can be relied upon during rough waters – running back Dylan Sampson.
Sampson has the 15th most rushing yards in college football through the first six weeks and ranks second in the SEC behind only Texas A&M’s Le’Veon Moss. Sampson has been dynamic with the football this year averaging 117 yards per game and hitting the triple-digit mark in four out of his five games so far this season.
Especially factoring in Tennessee’s talented but youthful quarterback, McElroy’s belief in Sampson as the key to the Vols’ offense is warranted.
“Tennessee’s offense is at a bit of a crossroads,” McElroy said during the Top 10 Takeaways segment of Monday’s show. “The best part of Tennessee’s offense is running back Dylan Sampson. You look at how he played coming out of halftime – he went from, like, 15 yards rushing to 110 (yards) in about two minutes, it felt like. I wanted, you wanted, everyone wants Nico Iamaleava to be a superstar day one. But that’s just not reality right now. He’s still a young quarterback and there were some things that he left on the field. It was probably his worst performance, but that’s okay. He’s a freshman. Felt like he got affected by the pressure. I didn’t think the protection was very good. The were several times in which they had multiple guys in protection that were getting beat by a four-man rush. And then people will point to the final play of the game – that’s just situational awareness. To expect a guy just six starts into his career to have that totally buttoned up is expecting an awful lot.
But the big potential of this is going to be, really the catalyst to them becoming the best they can be. And when you have a game in which you manage just one completion that goes for 20+ yards and you drop back and throw it 29 times, that’s not gonna be good enough. This offense is at a bit of a crossroads right now and they’ve got to get Nico playing better. He’s got to be more accurate down the field. And then to continue to feed Dylan Sampson because that is going to be their ticket to the top of the sport.”
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“Tennessee’s offense is at a bit of a crossroads.” @GregMcElroy on the state of @Vol_Football‘s offense after a tough loss to Arkansas ⬇️#Vols | #GBO | #Tennessee pic.twitter.com/p5Cgz0yc5O
— Always College Football (@AlwaysCFB) October 7, 2024
Tennessee fell to Arkansas on Saturday night for their first loss of the season after going 4-0 to start the year before the bye week. The Vols will look to rebound this weekend as they return to Neyland Stadium to host SEC rival Florida on Saturday night at 7.
Check out new episodes of the Always College Football podcast on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week.
