Dylan Sampson’s hamstring injury leaves Tennessee’s offense struggling in CFP loss to Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Tennessee reached the College Football Playoff for the first time in large part due to a rushing attack fueled by Dylan Sampson.

On Saturday night, the Volunteers were without the services of their workhorse running back when they need him the most.

Sampson — the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Year — spent most of Tennessee’s 42-17 first-round loss to Ohio State on the sideline due to a strained left hamstring.

The junior had two carries for six yards in the first quarter and did not return until early in the third quarter, when he had a catch for 2 yards.

That would be the extent of Sampson’s production.

Coach Josh Heupel said after the game that Sampson got dinged up near the end of the Nov. 30 game against Vanderbilt, when he had a career-high 178 yards on 25 carries.

Sampson was rested for a couple weeks but returned to practice this week. However, he aggravated the injury in the first quarter.

“We felt like he was in a good spot. We anticipated he would not have the same load but he re-tweaked it and wasn’t available for a while,” Heupel said.

Sampson — who set school records with 1,485 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns — rode a stationary bike and was stretching on Tennessee’s sideline during the first half in trying to loosen up the hamstring.

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He had 10 100-yard games this season as Heupel’s offensive scheme evolved this season from up tempo to wearing opponents down with the run.

Tennessee averaged 232 rushing yards per game, which led the SEC and was ninth nationally.

“We knew he was going to give it a shot. Whenever that guy is not at 100%, he makes everything go. So losing him and actually not even having him at full speed was tough,” offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said. “But that’s part of the job, is when you’re not healthy, when you’re not 100%, what are you going to do to get the job done. We didn’t get it done tonight.”

DeSean Bishop, who was second on the team in rushing, had seven carries for 22 yards before being injured in the second half.

Quarterback Nico Iamaleava also had to contend without two of his top receivers as Squirrel White and Dont’e Thompson also went down with injuries in the first half.

Iamaleava didn’t complete his first pass until nearly five minutes into the second quarter.

The Volunteers punted on their first three drives, but scored on their next two to get within 21-10, including a 2-yard TD run by Iamaleava.

Tennessee though did not score again until 1:56 remained in the game when Iamaleava had another 2-yard score.

“We struggled in protection early in the game,” Heupel said. “I thought Nico did a good job with his feet throughout the course of it making some plays. We didn’t separate at times, and it was a combination of a lot of different things.”

Tennessee also appeared to hold Ohio State to a three-and-out on its first series, but defensive lineman Bryson Eason drew a facemask penalty after a sack of Will Howard on third down. The Buckeyes would go on to score when Howard had a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Smith as they built a 21-0 advantage less than 12 minutes into the game.

Iamaleava was 14-of-31 passing for 104 yards but also had a career-high 20 rushing attempts for 47 yards.

“I did not expect to run that many times. We didn’t execute the whole game plan. We had to be better,” Iamaleava said. “We were supposed to come in, had a great game plan to come in and fire first, and they hit us in the mouth first. We were just trying to recover that whole game.”

In four years, Heupel has turned around a program that was 3-7 and reeling from a recruiting scandal under former coach Jeremy Pruitt to finishing 10-3 this season and making the CFP.

“Tonight wasn’t one of our best performances this year, and so at the end of the day we’ve got to continue to grow. We’ll start again and start retooling, rebuilding, and grow as a football team,” Heupel said.

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