Tennessee running back DeSean Bishop had a massive game in the Vols’ 24-14 win over Auburn on Saturday in Knoxville.

Bishop carried the ball 34 times for 220 yards and three touchdowns.

To say that he was the offensive MVP of the game would be an understatement. Without Bishop, Tennessee doesn’t win that game.

Vols fans are used to seeing Bishop run hard and play with great effort.

But if you watched him run against Auburn and felt like he had a little more juice than normal, you’re right.

Bishop told reporters that the game was “personal” for him because of Auburn head coach Alex Golesh.

According to Bishop, Golesh is the reason he was a walk-on when he landed with Tennessee in late 2022.

“Honestly, I’m not gonna lie — I’m gonna keep it real,” said Bishop. “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. So the mindset of that was just [with me] throughout the whole game.”

Bishop certainly played with an edge, and it’s the main reason why the Vols secured the win.

As for the comment about Golesh, it’s unclear exactly what role the former Tennessee offensive coordinator (who left for USF just before Bishop signed with UT) played in Bishop’s walk-on decision.

Bishop has said before that he wasn’t even aware that he was a walk-on when he first landed with the Vols.

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said earlier this summer that Bishop was a walk-on because the Vols had limited roster spots at the time.

“He’s a guy that was highly productive at a high school that’s 35 minutes from (Tennessee’s) campus,” said Heupel at SEC Media Days in Tampa. “His offers, we didn’t feel like, necessarily matched what his potential skill level was. He had great vision, balance, body control, and great feet in the hole. There were some things that he had to continue to grow in.

“But we were able to talk to him and just at that time, we were limited in some of the roster spots that we were able to have with some of the things that we inherited from the previous staff. And we talked to him about our vision of who he is, how he could develop, and how he could become an impact player. And he certainly lived up and surpassed those expectations.”

Whatever the case, making it “personal” yielded some big results for Bishop on Saturday in Neyland Stadium.