ESPN's Greg McElroy points out what he thinks was Tennessee's biggest issue in playoff loss to Ohio State
There were plenty of things that went wrong for the Tennessee Vols on Saturday in their 42-17 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff. But there was one thing, specifically, that prevented Tennessee's offense from being at its best according to ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy. […]
There were plenty of things that went wrong for the Tennessee Vols on Saturday in their 42-17 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
But there was one thing, specifically, that prevented Tennessee's offense from being at its best according to ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy.
McElroy suggested that the absence of running back Dylan Sampson, the 2024 SEC offensive player of the year, was too much for Tennessee's offense to overcome.
Sampson, who said a few days before the game that he was feeling the best he's felt all season, played just 16 snaps against Ohio State due to a lower body injury.
Vols head coach Josh Heupel said after the loss that Tennessee knew before the game that Sampson wouldn't carry his normal workload.
"[At the] end of the Vandy game, [Sampson] got dinged up, and it was soft tissue, and [he] had been out the first couple weeks and got back with us," said Heupel. "Started building him through the week. Felt like he was in a good spot. Anticipated him not having the same type of load that he normally would have. Just early in the game, kind of retweaked it and wasn't available there for a while."
McElroy thought that the loss of Sampson severely limited Tennessee's offense against Ohio State.
"It shows you that without Dylan Sampson, and him not having really any impact whatsoever, the team is just not where they need to be," said McElroy. "It's a good solid team. They play hard, they're super physical, there's a lot of things to like about what Tennessee had. But the star of the show all season long was Dylan Sampson.
"When Dylan Sampson was not there on the field, it was going to be a huge issue for Tennessee. And Nico (Iamaleava) is going to be a good player. I think Nico's got a chance here in time to become a really good player. He's not there yet. He's not at the point where he can carry a team by himself without much of a run game and be able to just carve defenses up right down the field. He's not there yet. His offensive line didn't give him any help whatsoever. And I thought the defensive performance was less than stellar from Tennessee. It was a bad matchup for them, so I'm not totally surprised."
There's no doubt that Sampson was Tennessee's best player on offense this season. His absence isn't the only reason why Tennessee lost — the Vols' defensive struggles took UT out of the game early. But not having Sampson in the game when the score was 21-10 and UT had a chance to get within four points severely hurt any chance Tennessee had to come back against the Buckeyes.
The impact that not having Sampson had on Tennessee's offense should send a message to the Vols' coaching staff that the program has to add some dynamic playmakers via the transfer portal this offseason if UT is going to legitimately compete for a national championship in 2025.