DeSean Bishop has made the short drive to Tennessee’s campus several times since getting a scholarship offer from the Vols more than nine months ago. They have continued to impress him each time he has been there, but his latest visit to Tennessee might have been his best yet.
The Class of 2023 running back from Knoxville’s Karns High School said the Vols made him feel like a priority Saturday during his visit for their latest junior day, and it was “probably the coolest” visit there he has experienced so far. Bishop said he enjoyed “getting to actually sit down and talk to some of the coaching staff,” led by running backs coach
Jerry Mack.
“I actually got to talk to the running back coach, Coach Mack, about how the offense is going to be run and what they expect out of the running-back position in their offense, and showing me what their scheme is like and all their audibles and stuff like that, and how fast they play and what he expects out of the running backs,” said Bishop, who’s ranked the No. 717 overall prospect and No. 45 running back in the 2023 class, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.
“Definitely different from my last few visits. This was probably the coolest one. Came down to talk to him one-on-one, and (I enjoyed) getting that college feel early.”
The 5-foot-10, 194-pound Bishop has indicated on multiple occasions that Tennessee is at the top of his list. He now has received scholarship offers from nine schools, but he said the Vols are one of his “two top teams right now,” along with Purdue.
Bishop has stayed in frequent contact with Tennessee since earning an offer from the Vols in early June with a strong showing at one of their camps, but he’s now hearing even more from them. He said he’s talking with Tennessee “almost, like, every day now — at least probably four times out of the week.”
The extra attention from the Vols carried over into Saturday’s visit, when he said Mack “showed me a few clips from their previous games (last) year — me and him basically one-on-one.”
“I mean, it’s way different from seeing it in-game and then when it actually gets broken down to you,” Bishop said. “Some of the stuff, I didn’t even see watching the game. It was definitely a good experience to see really what it looks like broken down — like, every small detail about it. … I can see myself in Tennessee’s offense.”
Heupel himself recently has been talking with Bishop, he said, as much as anyone on the Vols’ staff. He said he’s also hearing from Mack and
Aston Walter, Tennessee’s assistant running backs coach.
“It’s Heupel, I think, almost every day,” Bishop said. “He’ll shoot me a little text. The newest running back coach they got, Coach Walt, he’ll talk to me pretty often or, if it’s not him, it’s Coach Mack. … (Heupel will) shoot me a little quote, like, probably every day, early in the morning.
“I mean, you want a head coach to talk to you. I think that’s, like, the biggest confidence booster — good feeling — when the head coach is talking to you pretty much every day. It just goes back to the camp where he personally offered me, came up to me in person and offered me. That was a pretty big deal, a school like Tennessee. It’s a big thing. It’s a big deal.”
While he has grown up near Tennessee’s campus and he has attended several of the Vols’ football games at Neyland Stadium, he said Saturday’s visit allowed him to see his first Tennessee basketball game at Thompson-Boling Arena. A sellout crowd of 21,678 attended the Vols’ 78-74 win over Arkansas.
“I mean, it was (impressive),” Bishop said. “The fans were live. It was a good atmosphere. It’s kind of similar to football, but just, like, smaller.”
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