KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A day after defeating Auburn 24-14 inside of Neyland Stadium, Tennessee football saw positive movement in this week’s polls. The Vols moved up three spots in the U.S. LBM Coaches Poll to No. 14. Additionally, they moved up two spots to No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25.
Tennessee improved to 4-1 on the season, behind a dominant rushing game from senior running back DeSean Bishop. He went for 220 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries, all career-highs, and got back on track.
“Yeah, first and foremost, all the glory to my lord and savior, Jesus Christ, I knew this was his game plan, especially when the first touchdown got called back, I calmed myself down,” Bishop said. “I was like, God’s plan. And he surely had a plan for it today. And the whole mindset of it was just chipping away when my number was getting called.
“It was kind of a slow start early in the run game as well, but just leaning in on him and trusting in him that he was going to provide for us tonight, and he always does, man. Just very grateful for what he’s allowed me to do. Yeah, definitely had a lot more carries in this than in my previous times, but it felt like those days back at Karns (High School), just running the ball a whole lot of times, doing what I can to put my team in the best place to succeed. So, God’s good, man.”
After a quarter plus of football, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel made the move to sophomore quarterback George MacIntyre. That move proved to be beneficial as the offense opened up to complimentary football throughout.
“I’m really proud of George,” offensive tackle Jesse Perry said. “I think he stepped up, got his number called. I’m really proud of him. In the o-line, we just try to protect him and get the ground game running. Once you get the ground game running, that helps with the pass game and it’s just complimentary football.”
What is probably most important to note, is the defense had a huge day. Dejuan Lane played stellar defense and recorded nine total tackles (six solo). He also had 2.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, and one interception.
“Like we said previously, we have a saying with Coach Knowles: ‘Give us an inch, we’ll defend it,’” Lane said on Saturday. “And that’s what we did. It’s a mentality, and we showed y’all that we can make those stops in big games like this.”
The Vols will now turn to Arkansas for their first Southeastern Conference road game of the season. Heupel and the Vols will get back to work with things still to improve on, including the quarterbacks.
“We will go watch the tape,” Heupel said. “(Faizon Brandon) ultimately didn’t play his best football. The turnover on the sideline, some of the other things, the progressions, but I have said it a bunch, we are going to need them all throughout the course of the year. I alluded to that a little bit earlier with guys that had to step up and we will get back in the building on Monday and continue to grow and there is a lot of growth left for us on the offensive side of football and so that is a positive that we got a win today.”
