Karns running back De’Sean Bishop poses with his Tennessee Titans Division I Class 5A award at Nissan Stadium on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY DAVE LINK
DeSean Bishop continues going full speed ahead to reach his potential as a running back.
The Karns junior won the Class 5A Mr. Football Award after leading the Beavers to a record-setting season and into the second round of the state playoffs.
And now he’s working harder than ever.
While playing for the Karns basketball team, Bishop continues his weight and speed training – not to mention playing 7-on-7 football for an elite program.
“I’m just trying to get bigger and stronger and faster,” Bishop said Jan. 26. “I can already feel myself getting faster.”
Bishop, the 5Star Preps Offensive Player of the Year, rushed for 3,179 yards and 34 touchdowns last season – the second-highest single-season rushing mark in TSSAA history – and caught 19 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns.
His college offers include Tennessee and Michigan State, and the Vols are the frontrunners.
“Definitely probably Tennessee is the favorite right now,” Bishop said. “I’ve been talking to them almost weekly. It was my first really big offer, SEC offer, and it’s the school that reached out first more than anything. The coaching staff there, it’s a good coaching staff, we’ve kind of built a really good bond since they’ve been over there.”
Desean Bishop (8) and the Karns Beavers faced defeated Walker Valley in a Class 5A first-round playoff game on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, in Knoxville. (Photo by Danny Parker)
Karns coach Brad Taylor will be watching Bishop (5-11, 190) at the next level and says he has a rare blend of talent and intangibles.
“Obviously he’s got natural abilities, good size and speed,” Taylor said. “He has vision that some people say you’re eighter born with as a running back or you’re not. He has really good vision, likes football, and likes being a running back and enjoys working at those things. He likes football practice. Those are some intangibles that allow you to be successful, especially when you come with the god given talents and abilities.”
Bishop, who rushed for 1,731 yards and 22 touchdowns as a sophomore, is in his third season with the Karns football program.
After attending Northwest Middle School, Bishop was zoned for Powell High but moved to Karns for his freshman year.
It feels like home for Bishop.
“I enjoy it here a lot,” he said. “I could have easily went and transferred somewhere else, but the people here and the coaching staff, they really look after me and make sure I’m on the right path. They want to see me succeed here.”
Bishop played a big role in Karns’ rise in football in 2021 after the Beavers went 2-8 and 2-7, respectively, in his first two years.
Karns finished 7-5 after a loss at Rhea County in the second round of the playoffs. The Beavers hosted their first playoff game in school history – and won their first playoff game with an opening-round win over Walker Valley – while posting the program’s first winning season since 2011.
Bishop is quick to share credit for the team’s success.
“I’m not able to do it without those other 10 guys or those five guys on the line,” Bishop said. “They were really the power to our football team, the offensive line, because we could run the ball well against any team. We were a pretty tough team to stop and once we were going it was hard to stop us.”
Bishop is strictly a running back at Karns.
Taylor says it’s his college position.
“That’s what everybody’s looking at him as (running back),” Taylor said. “They like him as a running back. He has good hands, and some schools like that aspect of him, that he can catch it out of the backfield, but it’s not that they think he’s a receiver. They like him as a running back.”
PAST WINNERS – 5SP Offensive Player of the Year
2020 – Parker Hughes, Elizabethton WR
2019 – Elijah Young, South-Doyle RB
2018 – Cade Ballard, Greeneville QB
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