KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Saturday felt like what I call an old-school day of football. Tennessee’s offensive line put their hands in the dirt and helped pave the way for running back DeSean Bishop to have a spectacular day on the ground in a 24-14 win over Auburn. Bishop posted career-high numbers across the board with 34 carries for 220 yards and three touchdowns.
Though those are college career highs, the senior out of Karns High School here in Knox County had Friday nights like that often. He racked up 8,347 rushing yards and 102 rushing touchdowns in high school and was a back-to-back Tennessee Titans 5A Mr. Football Award winner after compiling more than 6,000 all-purpose yards between his junior and senior seasons. While that was a different level of football, Saturday felt like a classic Bishop performance.
“Yeah, definitely had a lot more carries than this in my previous times, but it felt like those days back at Karns, 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,” Bishop said on Saturday night.
After back-to-back weeks of finishing with 42 and 34 yards rushing, Bishop was due for a big game. The ground game has been solid this season, and doing it against a Southeastern Conference defense was good to see. Just as encouraging was the O-line getting the job done after taking some criticism and skepticism. Their hard work allowed Bishop to patiently take what he was given.
“I think we stepped up to the challenge,” offensive lineman Jesse Perry said. “We challenged ourselves this week to play to the standard that we know we can play at. I think we really pushed ourselves in practice and strained every second of the game.”
In the second half especially, it was a heavy dose of Bishop. To put the Vols up 10-7, he ran five of the six plays on the drive for a total of 40 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown run. Then on the next offensive drive, after a Dejuan Lane interception gave the ball back, Bishop burst through with a 44-yard touchdown run on a one-play drive to extend the lead. Then, to top off his day, Bishop took a short field and carried five times for 24 yards and his third touchdown.
“I kind of just allowed the game to come to me when it’s presented to me,” Bishop said. “I believe that I don’t think we ran the ball as well as we wanted to last week, and that was a priority for this week. It was really hot, so, I mean, just not getting away from it was our mindset. But I’m just staying patient back there, waiting for my number to be called, waiting for big plays to be made, offensive line clearing up gaps and whatnot. And it was only a matter of time before we started chipping away on them in the run game.”
Bishop and the No. 15 Vols head to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to face the Razorbacks on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 4:15 p.m. EDT on SEC Network. Arkansas allows 146 rushing yards per game at 4.3 yards per carry and just gave up 231 yards to Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 3.
