Dylan Sampson walked up to Guy Mistretta after his eighth grade football game and introduced himself. Mistretta had just taken over as head coach at Dutchtown High School outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Mistretta was taken aback by Sampson’s maturity at a young age, but that’s just the type of person he is. Sampson told Mistretta he was excited to play at Dutchtown.

Mistretta has gotten to watch Sampson go from that eighth grader he met in 2017 to an SEC running back. Throughout the process, he hasn’t seen his personality change.

“That’s just who he is, man,” Mistretta said. “He’s always got a smile on his face. He’s always saying hello to people, whether it be the bus driver, the trainers, the managers, whoever. He goes out of his way to make people feel at ease when he’s around.”

The running back was the first non-kicker to play varsity football at Dutchtown, the largest high school in Louisiana. He ended up breaking Eddie Lacy’s program record for all-time rushing yards with almost 5,000.

Sampson has a knack for the immediate impacts.

The 5-foot-11 running back was second among SEC freshmen in touchdowns in 2022. He capped off his freshman year with SEC Freshman of the Week honors. He’s started his sophomore year with 248 yards and six touchdowns on 36 carries.

From breaking Dutchtown to Knoxville, Sampson has found success on the field and in the locker room.

“He’s competitive and cares,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said. “Embraces every role that we put him in and he competes for those roles too, but he’s dynamic. The things that he does at the line of scrimmage that are really subtle.”

How Sampson turned loss into motivation

Football was not the focus for Sampson before eighth grade. The year 2016 was not friendly to Sampson.

The start of the school year was delayed due to the Louisiana floods. It was during those floods that his mom told him the bad news: his grandfather had passed away. He always had a smile on his face, Sampson remembers.

“I still miss him for sure,” Sampson said.

While dealing with the loss and the floods going on in Louisiana, Sampson was ready to quit sports altogether. He decided to use the loss to motivate him instead. His family let him come to the conclusion himself — something that Sampson appreciates.

“I think it’s just maturing, kind of coming to that conclusion of myself,” Sampson said. “Because at the end of the day, I think I go back to my roots. I’m a competitor. My brother’s talked to me a little bit, but it’s just an opportunity you take. You could either fold or have a reason to do something, and like I said, my family has been big. That was just an opportunity for me to fight through adversity and go do something for somebody else.”