You’ll be hard-pressed to find a running back more proven at the SEC level than DeSean Bishop. The Tennessee football star is coming off a redshirt-sophomore campaign in which he took over the first-string role and carried the bulk of the Vols’ effective run game.
The result for Bishop was a 1,076-yard and 16-touchdown season on 182 carries in 13 games. This earned him All-SEC Second-Team honors ahead of his return for his fourth year with Tennessee in 2026.
However, despite the proven production, College Football 27 didn’t name Bishop a top 10 running back in its upcoming game. Instead, he was left on the list in favor of Ole Miss’ Kewan Lacy, Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy, Miami’s Mark Fletcher Jr., Louisville’s Isaac Brown, BYU’s LJ Martin, Rutgers’ Antwan Raymond, Florida’s Jadan Baugh, West Virginia’s Cam Cook, Oklahoma State’s Caleb Hawkins and Georgia’s Nate Frazier.
An open field’s worst nightmare. The Top 10 HBs in #CFB27
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🔗: https://t.co/OaSxHvm6Rb pic.twitter.com/S0mDM8UjWq— College Football 27 (@EASPORTSCollege) June 24, 2026
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While some of the backs on the list make sense to be slotted above Bishop, there’s one direct comparison that is tough to justify. Frazier is coming off a year in which he fell short of 1,000 yards and scored 10 fewer touchdowns than Bishop, while both played in the SEC.
Nonetheless, Bishop now gears up for a year he hopes will be enough to push him to the NFL. He tops a room that features the likes of returning sophomores Daune Morris and Justin Baker and incoming Tulane transfer sophomore Javin Gordon.
“Bish still is Bish,” Tennessee running backs coach De’Rail Sims said in the spring. “His mindset, his mentality, the way he carries himself, it’s still him. He’s still gonna be the first guy in the building, still is gonna be the best note-taker on the whole entire team. The way he goes about practice in terms of being a technician has been really good. His habits, his characteristics that’s helped him get to this point has not changed.
“You see a little bit more sense of urgency with Bish, though, in terms of understanding, like, ‘I’m in a leadership role. I’m a returning starter on this offense. I don’t wanna live off the things that I did last year. I wanna go be better this year than I was last year.’ So you see all of those characteristics with Bish.”
