Former Vol gets real about Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson's 'lackadaisical' comments after loss to Arkansas
Tennessee Vols junior running back Dylan Sampson, a key team leader in UT's locker room, made some comments after last weekend's loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks that raised some eyebrows. Sampson told reporters that Tennessee was "lackadaisical" during the bye week ahead of the game against the Razorbacks. "If you go back and look, probably […]
Tennessee Vols junior running back Dylan Sampson, a key team leader in UT's locker room, made some comments after last weekend's loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks that raised some eyebrows.
Sampson told reporters that Tennessee was "lackadaisical" during the bye week ahead of the game against the Razorbacks.
"If you go back and look, probably some of our actions were a little lackadaisical with the bye week," said Sampson. "You know, taking things for granted. I told my team already in the locker room, we can't take those things for granted. We can't just flip the switch on. Every time we go out there, on the practice field, in the meeting room, we've gotta have great attention to detail."
Former Vols tight end Jacob Warren, who was teammates with Sampson for two seasons at Tennessee, joined Off the Hook Sports this week and he was asked about the "lackadaisical" comments.
"I think people say things and obviously he was frustrated as a leader," said Warren. "I think that's where you kind of have to understand that Dylan Sampson is one of, if not the leader of this offense. Statistically wise, but also just in the locker room and day to day, as he's walking around the halls and going out to practice and stuff. When you're in that leadership position, you really are very aware of kind of the temperature of the team and kind of where guys feel like they are. And you can kind of get a gauge about how Saturday is going to go before Saturday even comes, right?
"You're looking at practice film, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and just saying, 'Okay, what's going on? Maybe we have more mental mistakes here in a Friday walkthrough than we normally have'. But honestly what I take that as is just him as a leader taking accountability."
"Somebody's got to take accountability," added Warren. "Somebody's got to say, 'look, maybe we just didn't prepare the right way'. And I think that that's what that looks like coming from him."
Warren also pointed out that the Vols have a lot of young players and some transfer additions and the loss to Arkansas could serve as a wake-up call to those players — that just because they're at Tennessee doesn't mean that success is a given.
"There's a lot of young guys, a lot of new guys, a lot of people that haven't quite been in this experience before," explained Warren. "Unfortunately for me, I've been in this situation a couple of times. And definitely as a young player, you definitely have to figure that out. Because you come into a situation, into a system, where we expect to win games. I know (former Vol) Ollie Lane…mentioned how when (Josh) Heupel got here, there really started to be an expectation to win games and to win games by a lot of points. And so when something like that happens, and you're just a young guy, you come in, you think that's just the way things go. And I think that, I'm not saying it's necessary that you drop a game like this, but I think it is important for younger guys to kind of see like, dude, if what Dylan Sampson is saying is true, and they didn't quite put enough effort into the bye week or whatever, that's a lesson that that they're going to learn and that they will learn. I think Coach Heupel won't let that go unlearned."
Warren's comments feel like they're probably spot on. I think there are probably some players on Tennessee's roster that took some things for granted (and I don't think Sampson is included in that, but as a leader he stepped up and he was accountable). And that's not a shot at any of those players. We see this in sports all the time. The important thing is that they learn from what happened against Arkansas and they don't let it happen again this season.
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