Fans and spectators were buzzing online on Saturday night about the field conditions at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium during the game between Tennessee and Oklahoma from Norman.
Volunteers and Sooners alike slipped up on the field at times during the game leading those watching on television to question how effective the field was at keeping the players upright during plays.
While recapping the game on Thursday’s episode of the Everything Orange podcast, Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson effectively confirmed the slick conditions that many watching the game on television wondered about. Sampson spoke about the conditions while breaking down the film of a drive in the second quarter.
“This was just a great call that we really didn’t rep this much in practice this week, the little option with me and Nico,” Sampson said about Tennessee’s third down speed option call with himself and Nico Iamaleava. “Great call by coach Halzle and coach Heup. You’ve got Dayne [Davis] running out there, I just need him to get a piece on him. The field was so hard to cut on. The grass was high, it was slippery. So I was just trying to get the first down. So, even on that play, I couldn’t really cut. I was just trying to go full speed, downhill, and get the first down.”
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Fortunately for Tennessee, the Vols left that game without major injury concerns. While the Vols did not have starting left tackle Lance Heard for the game and did lose starting right tackle John Campbell Jr. during the game, Josh Heupel gave some optimism that both would be back for next week’s trip to Arkansas following the open date this weekend. Other than that, though, there didn’t seem to be any new developments.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, was far more beat up coming out of the Tennessee game. After listing five players as “out” and two as “game-time decision” for the Tennessee game in the Saturday SEC injury report, Oklahoma now has 10 players listed as “out” with one as “questionable” and one as “probable” in the Thursday night report before their road trip to Auburn this weekend – six players have been added to the injury report since the Tennessee game.
Tennessee will rest up this weekend through the open date before returning to SEC play on the road in Fayetteville, AR, next weekend. The Arkansas Razorbacks with former Tennessee defensive back Doneiko Slaughter and former Tennessee center Addison Nichols will host Josh Heupel’s Volunteers in Razorback Stadium at either 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Check out Dylan Sampson’s full episode on the Everything Orange podcast below:
