Tennessee tailback DeSean Bishop trying to take full advantage of opportunity

Who is going to be Tennessee’s #2 tailback behind starter Dylan Sampson entering the 2024 season has been a storyline since sophomore Cam Seldon injured his shoulder in spring practice requiring him to have surgery. 

Freshman Peyton Lewis is a highly acclaimed member of the 2024 signing class and he arrived in January. A couple of medical procedures shut him down during the spring and he’s just getting his first taste of college football this month. 

With Seldon sidelined from contact and Tennessee being cautious with Sampson, there’s opportunity at the tailback position for Lewis and local product DeSean Bishop. 

Bishop certainly appears to be making the most out of his chances through the Vols first scrimmage. 

“I thought DeSean Bishop had a really nice night — efficient, effective, ran hard thought. He did a really nice job,” head coach Josh Heupel said. 

“A year ago before he got hurt. Really liked how he was flashing in practice and early in the scrimmage. He’s very consistent. I’m really proud of how he’s rebounded from the injury. Just his continued growth as a person, the way that he approaches every day when he comes into the building. He got great vision, great pace. He does a really good job of using the blockers in front of him and setting those blockers up and ran with great pad leverage.”

It’s not the first time Heupel has praised the young tailback. He offered Bishop, who ran for over 8,000 yards in high school, high marks at the end of spring practice as well. 

“Thought he did a really good job,” Heupel said after the orange and white game. “Got a ton of opportunities this spring. Felt like coming off of an injury, whether it was mentally or just transitioning back into the ball side of it, continued to grow really well throughout the course of the spring. He ran well, sees it, what’s happening up in front of him extremely well and does a great job pressing the line of scrimmage, using blockers. I thought today he got behind his pads probably better than he has.”

First year running backs coach De’Rail Sims has been impressed with Bishop’s consistency.

Now I call him the spark plug. He’s done a really good job from practice one to where we are today in terms of getting better every single practice. He’s intentional coming in the meetings, asking questions. He’s intentional about taking notes in the meeting room and then when he gets out here on the field, he does a really good job of just executing at a high level. Even if he makes a mistake, he does it going a hundred miles an hour and then he’ll come over to the sideline and ask the question ‘Coach, what did I do wrong?’ He never makes the same mistake twice in that situation in team period,” Sims said.

Bishop will get plenty more opportunities as the Vols enter their third week of fall camp and will hold their second major scrimmage of the pre-season on Thursday morning. 

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