Two Tennessee Vols earn highest individual honors on Friday
Being named an All-American is just about the highest honor a college football player can receive. Two Tennessee Vols received that honor on Friday. RB Dylan Sampson was named second-team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation on Friday. The talented back was joined on the second team by North Carolina RB Omarion Hampton. Boise […]
Being named an All-American is just about the highest honor a college football player can receive. Two Tennessee Vols received that honor on Friday.
RB Dylan Sampson was named second-team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation on Friday. The talented back was joined on the second team by North Carolina RB Omarion Hampton. Boise State's Ashton Jeanty and Iowa's Kaleb Johnson earned first team honors.
Vols senior center Cooper Mays was named second-team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association. Ohio State center Seth McLaughlin, who was lost for the season with a torn Achilles before the Buckeyes played Indiana last month, was named to the first team.
Sampson's honors are particularly rewarding given how he was snubbed by not being named a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation's top running back. The finalists were Jeanty, Johnson, and Hampton.
Sampson and Mays have worked in tandem this season for what's turned out to be a historic year for the Vols' ground game. Sampson was able to grind out almost 1500 yards on the ground while totaling the most rushing and total touchdowns in Tennessee history and the fifth most rushing touchdowns in SEC history with 22.
It's hard to imagine where the Vols would be without either of the duo this year, as Tennessee's rushing attack helped grind its way through an October that saw the passing game in particular struggle repeatedly.
We'll find out next weekend if the two can help the Vols reach the College Football Playoff quarterfinals when Tennessee and Ohio State meet up on Columbus on December 21.
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