To start his college career, Tennessee football running back DeSean Bishop had a chip on his shoulder. The local prospect was under-recruited and joined the Vols as a walk-on late in the cycle.
Now, Bishop is coming off a season where he was the feature back and ran for over 1,000 yards. With that workload and the high expectations that come as a returner, the preparation for the 2026 season looks a bit different for him. As the star in the room, there’s an element of load management that comes with it.
For UT’s intrasquad scrimmage it held this past Thursday, Bishop was limited. He isn’t hurt, but the team doesn’t want to risk an unnecessary injury in the spring.
Vols running back coach De’Rail Sims said it’s a conversation they have with Bishop before scrimmages, and he’s done a good job understanding why it’s the route the staff is going.
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“We talked about it before each scrimmage,” Sims said. “Here’s the rep count that we’re going into in that situation, here’s why we’re doing this, here’s the things that you need to work on. It may be in this particular practice or scrimmage, man, we don’t need to see you run the ball ten times. We may only limit you to five runs, but we’re gonna do a really good job of getting you in pass protection to where you gotta do a really good job in terms of maximizing those opportunities.
“He’s been good, and he understands the plan and the process in terms of, man, you’re not gonna sit up here and go try to win a championship in March and April. But if you get a guy banged up, then you end up losing it from that standpoint. So he’s understood that in terms of here’s the things that I gotta work on. He knows, because we talk about that a lot, here’s the things that we gotta work on to make sure that it’s consistent pluses all the way through my game and no minuses. So he’s done a good job of that.”
Bishop is taking it as a chance to grow off the field and help the rest of the team. Not just his fellow running backs, who are younger and inexperienced, but the rest of the offense, as well.
When he does get his reps, he’s making sure to make the most of each of them as he prepares for what could be another season that lands him high on the SEC leaderboard among backs.
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“I mean, I kind of realized that as you get older, they’re going to try to take care of you more, especially getting closer towards the season,” Bishop said. “And I just kind of just took that as an opportunity to grow off the field, kind of bring guys along. I’m going to need everybody on this team, especially offensive line, my other running backs, the quarterbacks, receivers, everybody. So, it’s just that factor of kind of growing, like being a leader. It’s definitely a blessing, too. Kind of preserving myself right now, but just never taking a day off. I still get my reps, making every rep count with the limited reps I do get.”
This past season, Bishop was the lead back for Tennessee’s offense. He totalled 1,076 yards and 16 touchdowns on 182 carries through 13 games. This marked the third-straight season the Vols have produced a 1,000-yard back after Dylan Sampson and Jaylen Wright did it before getting drafted.
