KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee’s success on the ground and continued growth in the secondary will be key factors as the No. 11/11 Volunteers prepare for Saturday’s matchup at South Carolina.
Running backs coach De’Rail Sims and cornerbacks coach Derek Jones met with the media Tuesday, discussing the development of their respective position groups as Tennessee closes October with a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium on ESPN.
Senior running back DeSean Bishop has been a driving force behind Tennessee’s offense, and Sims said the veteran’s physical development has helped him maintain his effectiveness as games progress. Bishop rushed for 138 yards and the game-winning touchdown in last Saturday’s 24-17 victory at Arkansas, including 93 yards in the fourth quarter.
“He’s a guy that’s been built this way his whole entire career, starting back in high school,” Sims said. “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.”
Sims credited Bishop’s added size with improving both his stamina and ability to withstand contact, allowing the senior to remain an explosive threat throughout a game.
“I think stamina; it gives you a little bit more armor from that standpoint,” Sims said. “The other deal is I think it’s a mentality. Understanding that he has more armor on his body that he’s able to be more of a weapon in the run game and in the pass protection game.”
Tennessee will need that physicality against a South Carolina defense that leads the SEC in rushing defense, according to Sims, who praised the Gamecocks’ aggressive approach and ability to rally all 11 defenders to the football.
Defensively, Jones highlighted the progress Tennessee’s cornerbacks have made in tackling and playing a more complete brand of football. Against Alabama, the group recorded no missed tackles and surrendered no explosive plays, a significant step for a position tasked with supporting the run defense while maintaining coverage responsibilities.
“I’ve really been pleased with the guys,” Jones said. “I think they’ve bought into the tackling aspect. When you go look at the game the other night, we didn’t have any missed tackles, we didn’t give up any explosive plays, and that’s what we have to do at our position to win.”
Jones singled out Ty Redmond for embracing the physical demands of playing on the boundary against Alabama’s rushing attack. He stressed that the improvement must become a consistent part of the unit’s identity.
Full comments from Jones and Sims’ Tuesday media availability can be viewed below.
Tennessee Football Press Conference | Oct. 20, 2026
Cornerbacks Coach Derek Jones
On the differences in coaching corners with a strong pass rush…
“Well, I think it’s more of a schematic thing than it is a fundamental technique thing. From a schematic standpoint, we realized that we’re talented at all three levels, and so we’re calling things that reflect that. When you’re really good at corner and you’re not so good up front, you’re probably playing a little bit more press man in their face, making quarterbacks have to be perfect, but for us, we’re trying to eliminate the explosive plays. That’s the number one thing that we’re concerned about, but it also allows the corners to know how quickly to retreat, how heavy they can play, and what that means is the distance that they get off in certain coverages, so it’s a rhythm that we’ve gotten into. We know per down and distance and what coach calls, how to play. So, I’m not going to say it makes it easier, but everything has to work together because the pass rush is coming, but if we’re at the corner and we’re retreating really fast, that leaves the pass open. So, we’re all kind of working together, trusting that those guys are going to do their jobs and them trusting that we’re going to do ours.”
On how different the South Carolina offense is from last season…
“I think the biggest thing is, I think their O-line is much improved. I think their receiving core is improved, and the quarterback is a year older. He causes a lot of problems, very athletic, I think they do a good job utilizing him and his abilities, and they have some weapons in the receiving core that I don’t think they had last year. We played them in the first game of the season last year, so they look a little bit different there. The quarterback is making reads now and is really effective in a lot of the things that they’re doing.”
On having a well-rounded cornerback room…
“Well, that’s very important that we are fundamentally sound at what we have to do, and oftentimes, you find corners that don’t want to do that, but when you play corner, you have to be a well-rounded football player. You can’t just be a cover guy, you can’t just be a guy that makes tackles, you have to be a guy that does it all. We try to make sure that those guys are fundamentally sound in every area. Going into last week’s game, watching Alabama’s offense, I thought they were very good at running the football. So, I knew we were going to have to take on a lot of blocks on the edge, and just as a corner coach with experience, you understand when you’re as good as we are up front, people aren’t going to necessarily try to run the ball down the middle on you as much as they’re going to try to get on the edges. So, because we realize people are going to try to attack us on the edges, whether we’re taking on the wide receivers, taking on tight ends, or having to take on pulling guards and tackles, we have to be fundamentally sound, and knowing how to fit our hands, having our anchor foot, which is our back foot, down, pad level, and everything. So those are things that we’ve emphasized over the course of the last week that those guys are having to execute on film.”
On former Penn State players helping teach Jim Knowles‘ defense…
“Bringing three guys with [Coach Knowles] has really helped because one of the things you want as a position coach and coordinator is you want to have guys in your room that are leaders, guys in your room that are captains, guys in your room that can watch film with other people and be able to explain exactly what’s going on. When you’ve been in a system, at a place, for a while, you have continuity. You’re hoping your juniors and seniors are those guys, but when you come to a place in one year, and with the transfer portal having a lot of guys coming in, it’s very important that you have guys in the room who can explain what’s going on and talk about things. The other piece of the puzzle is that Coach Knowles, for the first time in a long time, has a lot of us that have coached with him and understands what he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about coaching us as much as he has at some other places. When you combine all of those things together, you start to see the benefits of it.”
On how the corners have bounced back from early tackling struggles…
“I’ve really been pleased with the guys. I think they’ve bought into the tackling aspect. When you go look at the game the other night, we didn’t have any missed tackles, we didn’t give up any explosive plays, and that’s what we have to do at our position to win. But we talk about tackling. I was very impressed with those guys, watching them on film when running the football. We knew the benefit of those backs with breaking tackles, so I knew we were going to have to go into that game and be physical. (Ty Redmond), in particular, because he played to the boundary most of this game. He knew he had to be physical, he accepted the challenge to be physical, and he showed up in a physical way. Very proud of those guys for that, but that’s not something that you can just do in one game. You have to continue to excel at that, but it’s a mindset. Good players are going to make you miss sometimes, but when you miss at our position it’s glaring, and it leads to explosive plays. We also have got to know when to make a particular tackle. Tackling is something that’s an art. You can’t just go up there trying to knock somebody off their feet, you have to know how to take on a tackle. When you have somebody a little bit bigger than you, you need to know how to take the tackle, maybe fall backwards. With time being together and coaching those guys, they’re picking all those things up.”
On the lively side of Jim Knowles seen after the win versus Alabama…
“What you all saw from Coach (Jim) Knowles, I’ve seen since I met the guy. Coach Knowles is a fun guy, he’s a funny guy, he doesn’t have an ego. That’s the thing people don’t realize about him, and a lot of people across the country are giving him praise for what he is doing. He’s just a guy that comes to work, and he’s a guy that tells jokes all the time. We spend a lot of time in that room together. I’ve spent a lot of time with him, having worked with him for eight years at other places. I don’t think you’re going to run into many people that have worked with him that don’t know that side of him. He doesn’t have the camera on him all the time, but he’s always been like that.”
On how Kayin Lee is playing…
“I think he’s playing at a very high level. Kayin (Lee) is a guy that has played a lot of football. The thing that I wanted to do with Kayin was to get him to understand the attention to detail in every play. Making sure that he understands the minute details of situations, and he’s really responded. He plays fast, he practices hard. There’s still some things we can improve on, but when I look at up until this point in the season, I would say he is playing at a very high level.”
On the young corners behind the starters’ development…
“If you look at it, those guys are practicing with me every day, they are going through the game plan every week. But if you go back and look at the minute details of special teams, all of those guys have shown up, particularly in the Auburn game. Joel Wyatt, in particular, forced three fair catches, and he downed another ball. Those things are very important. What I tell those guys, and what they have to understand, is that when you represent the room, you have to represent the room in every aspect. You have to play special teams the way that you play defense. If they have any aspirations to play professional football, if you’re not the starter, then you have to excel on special teams. But playing on special teams also gets those guys used to being in the game. It gets them used to not panicking, and to doing all the things they are going to have to do when they do play at corner. They’ve improved since you saw them get some snaps early. If we had to put one of those guys in the ballgame, I would feel much better now about their progress than I did the last time you guys saw them. They practice every day, and we get to see them every day. So, it’s a steady development process that I’m satisfied with right now.”
Running Backs Coach De’Rail Sims
On monitoring DeSean Bishop’s carries during a game…
“You always pay attention to body language. Does he look fatigued? That type deal. We always got dialogue on the sideline, (ask him) 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 during that standpoint. So, you try to pay attention to the body language in the spurts, in terms of how long the series is. If it’s a short series, you just got to let him eat 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. A guy that’s missed three weeks, kind of the speed of the game a lot of times kind of is fast, but it wasn’t (for him). 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 and does a really good job in protection as well. And then his hands out of backfield are 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 fits it, 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 go attack the run game. And they want to get all 11 hats to the football, so they swarm it really good.”
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 haven’t come to a game in Tennessee, you aren’t coming to a game when we’re on the road. So, that kind of takes care of itself. And my wife takes care of that as well, so it’s one band, one sound in my house.”
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 want them 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 (going to do that). You dog gone going to have to take his helmet away and his pads for him not be ready to go.”
On so 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 I’ll be like, ‘alight, when I feel like he’s getting fatigued a little bit, you taking this drive off, you taking this series off so that now we’re able to get you back in stronger.’ ”
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 hit on from a pass protection standpoint, run 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 a guy. There may be something that’s 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 that it in the game on Saturday. When he comes in, it’s a different change of pace in terms of what the defense has 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 that he’s done that. The thing about it is, it’s always going to be those opportunities because he’s always going to get in there and get that opportunity to go play. Just understanding where’s those points in time? It may be early on in the game, it may be 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 be able run behind his pads in a critical 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 sit up here and 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 (Javin Gordon). 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 he’s taking, you see that show up. The other deal is I think it’s a mentality. Understanding that he has more armor on his body that he’s able 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 that extra mass in you now. And you’re able to run with it and still be explosive, so I think that is huge for him.”
