KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After a career day in a 24-14 win over Auburn, Tennessee football senior running back DeSean Bishop has earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week. Bishop posted 34 carries for 220 yards and three touchdowns.
“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 after Saturday’s win. “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.”
Bishop got back on track after a couple of tough weeks, and led the Volunteer offensive attack with a huge second-half against the Tigers. Tennessee scored its first two touchdowns of the day on back-to-back offensive snaps in the third quarter. Both came on the ground from Bishop, who totaled 69 yards on those two carries alone. The Vols ran for a net 237 yards as a team on Saturday. The 220 rushing yards by Bishop rank No. 12 on Tennessee’s single-game leaderboard, while the 34 carries tie for No. 11 and the three rushing touchdowns place co-ninth.
“The way he was running the football, he was feeling much better this week than a week ago but he is a fighter,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said after the win. “I thought he had really good vision and he made a couple of bounce cuts that were the right time, big time plays by him and ultimately it was just the way the game unfolded.”
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. That could set up for another huge day from Bishop.
