DeSean Bishop has never lacked motivation in a Tennessee football career that began as a walk-on in 2023, but the chip on the running back’s shoulder was a little bigger against Auburn on Saturday because of the other coach on the visiting sideline at Neyland Stadium.

After ripping the Tigers for a career-high 220 yards and three touchdowns in the Vols’ 24-14 win, Bishop said Auburn head coach Alex Golesh, who was Tennessee’s offensive coordinator for the first two seasons (2021-22) of the Josh Heupel, was “one of the reasons” he started his career with the hometown Vols as a non-scholarship player.

Now a senior who was an All-SEC performer in 2025 and surpassed 2,000 career rushing yards in Saturday’s game, Bishop didn’t forget the slight when he took on Golesh’s Auburn defense.

“I’m not going to lie, I’m going to keep it real – like this game was very personal from just the mindset of Golesh, he was one of the reasons I was a walk-on at the University of Tennessee,” Bishop said.

“So the mindset of that was just throughout the whole game, that every time I touched the ball, like they’ve got to feel me, they’ve got to feel what they were missing when they got me here. But in a sense, it was really a blessing in disguise, that I wouldn’t be here without his goal. So any time I touch the ball, man, it’s a purpose that I’m trying to prove.

“I’m trying to make people feel me when I run the ball, and that just comes from just who I was and just who I am and how hard I work on and off the field. Them opportunities were presented to me to go put the team in a good position to win, man. I made sure I’m making those count.”

After changing quarterbacks in the second quarter, Tennessee put the game on Bishop and its offensive line. With Daune Morris not getting another carry after his fumble in the second quarter, the Vols just kept feeding Bishop and feeding Bishop. He ended up with a college career-high 34 carries, but that’s nothing to a player who got the football on virtually every play during his Karns High School football career.

Tennessee’s recruitment of Bishop was complicated. The Vols offered him at one of their camps in June 2021, one of the first in-person recruiting opportunities for a then-new coaching staff after the NCAA lifted its pandemic-caused recruiting dead period. Bishop attended several games at Neyland Stadium during his junior season.

But with Tennessee not fully convinced on him, Bishop committed to Coastal Carolina in July 2022. When the Chanticleers underwent a coaching change, Bishop opened up his recruitment and ultimately chose the walk-on opportunity at Tennessee over a scholarship spot at Appalachian State.

It has worked out exceptionally well for Bishop, and it certainly worked out well for Tennessee on Saturday. Bishop had touchdowns of 25 and 44 yards in the third quarter as the Vols turned a 7-3 deficit into a 17-7 lead. In the fourth quarter, he converted a fourth-and-1 and scored a 5-yard touchdown run to put the game out of reach for Golesh’s team.

“First and foremost, all glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Bishop said. “I knew this was His game plan, especially when the first one had got called back. I calmed myself down, I was like, ‘God’s plan,’ and he surely had a plan for it today.

“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 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, and just running the ball a lot of times, doing what I can to put my team in the best place to succeed, so God’s good, man.”