De'Rail Sims Talks DeSean Bishop's Lack of Complacency and What Drives Him

Tennessee had an array of breakout players during the 2025 season, but some would argue that DeSean Bishop took the biggest leap of them all. In Bishop's first season as a starter for the Volunteers, he finished fourth in the SEC for rushing yards with 1,076, fourth in the SEC with 5.9 yards per carry, and tied for second in the SEC with 16 rushing touchdowns.

Tennessee running backs coach De'Rail Sims spoke to the media on Tuesday, September 1st, where he was asked a multitude of questions regarding star running back DeSean Bishop and the rest of the Volunteers' running back room leading up to Tennessee's season opener at home against 1-0 Furman. While speaking to the media, Sims was asked about Bishop avoiding complacency this offseason, what he noticed from spring to now that could be better this season compared to last, and his driving force to continue improving.

This is what he had to say.

De'Rail Sims on DeSean Bishop Avoiding Complacency, Where He Has Improved, and What Drives Him to Do So

“To be honest with you, I think he is a self-driven person that did a really good job of understanding what his goals were, and at the same time, it was certain things that was brought to his attention as well that kind of helped him continue to have that chip on his shoulder. So I think he has a lot that he wants to prove. I think he has a lot of goals that he wants to go after, and when you got a mindset like DeSean does, not a lot of things are going to hold you back and stop you. So that only has fueled him in a lot of really good ways. So he’s done a really good job of understanding the things that he need to get better that we talked about last year. Towards the end of the season, kind of some of the warts that showed up. He went about it this offseason, spring practice, fall camp, and attacked those and done a really good job,” Sims said.

Sims then went on to speak about where Bishop has improved as well as what has driven him to do so, stating, “I think, understanding, like last year, I think he was still finding his role in terms of being a leader in the room. That was a little bit different. When you lose a void in terms of D-Samp leaving, everybody kind of looked at him as being the leader in the room, and I think now he understands that he’s the leader of the room. And kind of the room gonna go as he goes. So I think he’s done a really good job from that standpoint. And then just overall, the goals that he has set for himself, that he’s never gonna really talk about. He’s going to keep that internally. And I think that’s his driving force now, too. And wanting to be the best, I think that’s the other deal, too. As you look at a local kid that came here, that started out as a walk-on, that has earned every single thing that he’s gotten, that drives him. That’s one of those deals, he never takes a back seat to that. He’s always doing a really good job of continuing to push forward. So I’m excited to go see him play this season and see what he can get done," Sims said.

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