DeSean Bishop has never lacked motivation in a Tennessee football career that began as a walk-on in 2023, but the chip on the running back’s shoulder was a little bigger against Auburn on Saturday because of the other coach on the visiting sideline at Neyland Stadium. Josh Heupel’s first two seasons (2021-22) were “one of the reasons” he began his career with his hometown Vols as a non-scholarship player. Now a senior who was an All-SEC player in 2025 and surpassed 2,000 career rushing yards in Saturday’s game, Bishop didn’t forget the snub when facing Golesh’s Auburn defense. “To keep it real, this game was very personal from Golesh’s mentality, he was one of the reasons I was an assistant at the University of Tennessee,” Bishop said. “So the mentality of that was throughout the whole game, that every time I touched the ball, like they had to feel me, they had to feel what they were missing when they brought me here. But in a sense, it was really a blessing in disguise, that I wouldn’t be here without his goal. The ball, man, is a purpose that I’m trying to show. “I’m trying to make people feel me when I run the ball, and that just comes from who I was and who I am and how hard I work on and off the field. I was presented with opportunities to put the team in a good position to win, man. “After switching quarterbacks in the second quarter, Tennessee put the game on Bishop and his offensive line. With Daune Morris not getting another carry after his second-quarter fumble, the Vols just kept feeding Bishop and feeding Bishop. He finished with 34 carries, the most of his college career, but that’s nothing for a player who got the ball on virtually every play during his football career at Karns High School. Bishop’s recruitment by Tennessee was tough. The Vols offered him at one of their camps in June 2021, one of the first in-person recruiting opportunities for a then-new coaching staff after the NCAA lifted its pandemic-caused recruiting dead period. Bishop attended several games at Neyland Stadium during his junior season. But with Tennessee not completely sold on him, Bishop committed to Coastal Carolina in July 2022. When the Chanticleers suffered a coaching change, Bishop opened up his recruiting. walk-on opportunity at Tennessee instead of a scholarship at Appalachian State. It has worked exceptionally well for Bishop, and it certainly worked well for Tennessee on Saturday. Bishop had touchdowns of 25 and 44 yards in the third quarter as the Vols turned a 7-3 deficit into a 17-7 lead. In the fourth quarter, he converted a 5-yard touchdown run to put the game out of reach for Golesh Cristo’s team. “I knew this was his game plan, especially when the first one had been called again. I calmed down, I thought, ‘God’s plan,’ and surely he had a plan for that today. “The whole mentality was breaking down when my number was called. It was also a slow start at the beginning of the run game, but just leaning on Him and trusting Him that He was going to provide for us tonight, and He always does, man. I am very grateful for what it has allowed me to do. “Yeah, I definitely had a lot more carries in this than my previous times, but it felt like those days at Karns, and I was just running the ball a lot, doing what I could to put my team in the best place to be successful, so God is good, man.”
