Just In:Vols RB Dixon No Longer With the Team

Former West Virginia and Clemson transfer Lyn-J Dixon is no longer with the team, a source confirmed to Volunteer Country on Sunday afternoon. The reason for Dixon’s departure has not been disclosed at this time. This marks the third time in Dixon's career that he has seen a stop come to an abrupt, unexpected end. 

Dixon transferred to Tennessee a few days into fall camp, and he dealt with an ankle injury shortly after that sidelined him for Tennessee’s most recent scrimmage. 

This essentially guarantees that Tennessee will have to look to at least one of its freshmen tail as the Vols now only have four scholarship backs in the room. 

Jerry Mack recently spoke on both Justin Williams-Thomas and Dylan Sampson.

"Well, the third block for him was probably his best set of practices since he's been here,” Mack said last week about Williams-Thomas. “I mean, from a standpoint of him running with more confidence, we saw flashes of the Justin we saw in high school. We saw him have an explosive play in the scrimmage the other day. We saw him being able to catch the ball out of the backfield a little bit today in practice, doing some things like that. I think where he has to get better is, where all young guys usually have to get better, and that's pass protection. More so than technique, I think we've done a good job of him understanding, at a minimum, where his eyes belong. He was here in the spring, so he had an opportunity to go through some of that spring, summer camp as well, and now into fall camp. I don't have an issue of him knowing who to block, now it's just about the mannerism and about how to actually get there. I think that's the biggest thing for him right now, to continue to work his technique. We talk about hands inside, squeezing the elbows tight, keeping our butts to the quarterback. All those little things that they probably don't talk to you as much (about) in high school because he was mainly the primary runner, is things he has to learn how to do playing without the ball. It's going to be really important for him."

He also added high praise for Sampson, who has flashed his potential multiple times since arriving on campus. 

“He's done a great job,” Mack said of this. “He's kind of a fan favorite right now in the building with his attitude, personality, which we knew when we recruited him. Every day he comes out there, it seems like he does something really good with the ball in his hands. Explosive plays. We talked about him being a guy that was going to have those sexy runs, those long, explosive runs, and he's held true to form. He's that guy that every day in practice, he's been coming out there and he finds a way to get through those small creases. You know, he's a smaller back but he gets to top end speed really fast. We've been really impressed with his natural vision and his natural patience as a runner. Obviously, the thing that he has to continue to grow in more than anything else is that physicality part of it and that's going to come as he gets into games more, as he gets into practice and those live reps more. I like the way Dylan's operating in our offense as well. He's playing with that sense of urgency that we need in our offense because we play so fast."