Stop the count!: This Tennessee player could still crash the Heisman Trophy party

He may be the ultimate dark horse for it, but the Tennessee Volunteers actually have a candidate for the Heisman Trophy after all. Through the first 10 weeks of the season, it seems as though the 2024 Heisman Trophy will go to one of four players: Miami quarterback Cam Ward, Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Colorado defensive back Travis Hunter or Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.

According to FanDuel Sportsbook, those are the top four candidates entering this week. All of them have +500 or better odds. Replacing Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik and Georgia quarterback Carson Beck in the top six would be another pair of signal callers in Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke and Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart. Both of whom are +2000 to win the 2024 Heisman Trophy.

Of course, Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson is nowhere to be found... You have to scroll all the way down to +20000 odds to find the Volunteers' best player. At the start of the season, you and I and everybody else was all-in on first-year starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Through the first two-thirds of the season, Iamaleava has looked very much like a first-year starting quarterback in the SEC.

Just take a look at the stats Sampson has compiled up to this point and don't tell me he has no shot.

With four games left, including a pair of huge ones vs. Georgia and Vanderbilt, he has a chance!

Dylan Sampson is the ultimate dark horse to win the Heisman Trophy

To date, Tennessee is one of the few great programs in college football that has never had a Heisman winner. Peyton Manning never won it. Tennessee joins a list of teams like Cal, Clemson and Ole Miss where you could have sworn somebody has won the Heisman Trophy before. While I think Dart and Rourke also have a real shot at it, Sampson has been the straw that stirs the drink for Tennessee.

Not only will he have opportunities to put the team on his back and carry it vs. Georgia in Athens and Vanderbilt in Nashville, Sampson can also stat pad a bit in their two other games vs. Mississippi State and UTEP, both of whom have already lost seven games. Iamaleava may be what got you to a TV set, but Sampson is who will keep you glued to it all night long watching the Vols. He has quite the runway.

Ultimately, what we have to remember is the Heisman is a quarterback-driven award. For a non-quarterback to win it, you essentially need to play for Alabama or be Derrick Henry, preferably both. Then again, Alabama's other biggest rival beat the Crimson Tide at their place, in part because of his stats. With 980 yards and 19 rushing touchdowns in only eight games, those stats move the needle.

For Sampson to not even be within a stone's throw of being a Heisman finalist is actually insulting.