Tennessee football’s rushing attack has been the key cog in the Vols’ offensive success this season. Now, it’ll look to keep that ball rolling against a strong South Carolina run defense.

To preview the game, Tennessee running backs coach De’Rail Sims met with the media. Here’s what he said.

On monitoring DeSean Bishop’s carries during a game

“You always pay attention to body language. Does he look fatigued? That type deal. You kind of go off— we always got that on the sideline, how you feeling in between the drives. He’s a guy that’s been built this way his whole entire career, starting back in high school. So you can just tell the more and more that he gets, the stronger he gets as the game goes along. Not intentional to load him up that way. It just gets to the point he gets hot, and you just got to let him go.”

On monitoring fatigue more within drives as opposed to over the course of the game

“Yeah, no doubt about it. You always pay attention to, if it’s a long drive, and he’s carried the ball multiple times in a row, you try to get him to breather from that standpoint. So you try to pay attention to the body language in spurts, in terms of how long the series is, but if it’s a short series. You just got to let him go from that standpoint.”

On what he’s seen from Javin Gordon since he returned from injury

“He’s done a good job in terms of picking right back up. It was good for him to be able to get in the game on Saturday and get a feel for it. Gut has missed three weeks, kind of speed of the game a lot of times, is kind of fast but it wasn’t. You saw him be able to catch the football out of the backfield on that drive as well. So I think the biggest deal with him is, he’s a physical downhill runner. He does a really good job in protection as well. And then his hands out of backfield is really good. He’s a guy that in high school played receiver. So you can see those ball skills with him. So he adds that element to the game as well.”

On what makes South Carolina a good run defense

“Number one, they sit up there and they fit it extremely well. And I mean, from the defensive line to the linebackers and the secondary fixtures as well. The other deal is you can tell the mentality of these guys in terms of them playing hard. They play extremely aggressive. You saw that against Florida. You saw that against every single team that they played against. From Alabama to Kentucky, they’ve done a good job of being able to attack the run game. And they want get all 11 hats to the football. So they swarm it.”

On being from South Carolina, if he’ll have extra family at the game

“Yeah, I got to tell you, in that situation with my family, I always tell them, if you ain’t came to a game in Tennessee, you ain’t come to a game on the road. So they kind of take care of itself. And my wife takes care of that as well. So it’s one band, one town in my house so.”

On DeSean Bishop knowing when to bounce runs

“Yeah, I think that’s a natural ability. Something that I don’t want to take out of our guys in terms of I’m going to be able to play fast and play free. We talk about that every single week. From an attack plan standpoint, it’s play fast and play free. Play within the system, but at the same time, you’re not a robot. So I think he does a really good job of just having that feel and that knack for it in terms of when he gets bottled up, when does he need to bounce the ball outside, when does he need to stay inside. So it’s a natural instinct for him.”

On if DeSean Bishop has ever told him he’s not ready to go before a drive

*Shakes head no* “And that’s the one thing about him is he’s never gonna take his helmet off and his passion will not be ready to go.”

On how he evaluates when DeSean Bishop is and isn’t ready

“Yeah, well, paying attention to how he looks and then how he’s moving and operating, because I can tell— I’ve been around him long enough to understand when his juice is high and when his juice is low. So it’s those time periods (when)  I feel like he’s getting fatigued a little bit, you take this drive off, you take this series off. So that now we have to get you back in there strong.”

On how they manage DeSean Bishop during the week

“Doing a good job in terms of making sure he’s staying fresh and he’s staying in tune and the things that we need to make sure we get on from a pass protection standpoint, running game standpoint. That’s why the depth in the room is critical. So all of those guys are sitting up here, when you look at our practice, we’re all getting equal amount of reps to where we’re not overloading the guy. There may be something unique in that week that he needs to get, but if it’s something that he’s repped a lot of times, those other guys come in to take those reps.”

On trying to get Daune Morris back going like he was early in the season

“Yeah, I think Daune’s done a really good job in just terms of being that guy that comes in to steady it. You saw it in the game on Saturday. He comes in, it’s a big change of pace in terms of what the defense got to prepare for. The flow of the game kind of dictates that a little bit too, in terms of who’s getting hot at what point in time. He has his spurts where he’s done that. The thing about it is, it’s always going to be those opportunities because he’s always gonna get in there and get that opportunity to go play. Just understanding where’s those points in time. Maybe early on in the game, maybe later in the game, just like it was in Kennesaw. You know what I’m saying? He came on in the second half and he was that home run hitter.

“And then just like last week, he was able to go pad plus two and run behind his pads in incredible situation on that drive to go win the game. I think with him, man, he’s just continuing to grow. And his mindset is so good right now. He’s in a really good place. And he’s grown a lot, knock on wood, and done a good job from that standpoint. So the maturing piece of it for him has been good. And when you look at him in pass protection, too, he’s done a good job from that standpoint. So he’s continuing to grow in the right direction and right steps. Just like all the rest of the guys in the room, from (Justin) Baker to JG, they’ve done a really good job from a growth standpoint.”

On how DeSean Bishop changing his body has changed his game, whether it’s stamina or absorbing hits

“Both. I think stamina, it gives you a little bit more armor from that standpoint. Especially a guy that’s running as hard and as physical as he is and taking the amount of carries as he’s taking, you see that show up. The other deal is I think it’s a mentality. Understanding that he has more arm on his body, that he’s made to be more of a weapon in the run game and in the pass protection game. I joke with him all the time when we watch old clips from ‘24, even last year, like, hey man, look how big you’ve gotten over these years. You was a little skinny dude in ‘24. You was kind of medium-sized right there last year, now you’ve done a really good job of bulking up.

So I think it helps tremendously from a mentality standpoint. But then also understanding, as the game goes along, they get tired. And they get tired of hitting you, because you got the extra mass in you now. And you’re able to run with it and still be explosive. So I think that is a huge for him.”