It’s rare you see a college football player, particularly a position that has the ball in their hands for a good bit of the game, not wear any gloves. For Tennessee football running back DeSean Bishop, that’s something he’s decided to do this year. After sporting gloves as a redshirt freshman a year ago, he opened up 2025 barehanded in the 45-26 win over Syracuse.
The reasoning is that he feels like he actually has a better grip when he doesn’t have gloves. It may seem counterintuitive to turn down the sticky aspect of modern gloves, but he found at practices during the offseason that he got a better feel for it without the assistance.
By going back and looking at photos, this is something that he started to do in the spring. During the first spring scrimmage of this offseason, he had already ditched the gloves. In photos from fall camp, he remained gloveless.
“That’s one of the good reasons that I’m able to catch the way I am now,” Bishop said. “Just started practicing, catching without the gloves. Just get that feeling of the ball, that grip I do on the ball. I kind of went up to the game like thinking, dang, should I wear gloves now? But why switch it up now. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. That’s kind of my mindset. I’m just going in there, I’m not here to look the best, dress the best, I’m just here for straight business. I feel like that’s what that represents out there. Shows that I’m here to get the job done.”
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Bishop took the effectiveness of the no-glove approach to the limit by being a factor in the pass game. He snagged a pair of passes in the win over the Orange for a total of 44 yards. This included one that went 23 yards and another that went 21.
This is a wrinkle that Tennessee is looking to add into the offense a bit more this year. The Vols haven’t thrown to backs much under Josh Heupel, but the head coach and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle have added it to the game plan. Star Thomas also got an off-script touchdown pass in the game.
“Another blessing,” Bishop said. “I always looked forward to catching the ball. I did a little bit in high school. I was just waiting, praying about that time where I would get the ball in my hands out of the backfield. Especially when it is thrown to me. Once again, God came through with that. Halzle and us, we chatted a little bit during the offseason about like we’re gonna get ya’ll the ball. I’m going to make the most of every opportunity to catch the ball, which I did on Saturday.”
Bishop and Tennessee will be back in action this Saturday inside Neyland Stadium at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game against ETSU will air on SECN+/ESPN+.
