Photos: Tennessee Athletics
DeSean Bishop just got left off the Doak Walker Award watch list and I’m tired of acting surprised.
Sixty running backs made the cut. Six of them from the SEC. And somehow the guy who ran for 1,076 yards and 16 touchdowns last season while earning All SEC honors didn’t make it. Tennessee’s first returning 1,000-yard rusher since 2016 got snubbed on a list that found room for South Carolina’s Matt Fuller.
This isn’t even shocking anymore. It’s just the same tired story.
Bishop walked on at Tennessee. He waited his turn. When he finally got the job he produced like a dude who had been starting for years. He ran hard between the tackles, finished runs, and scored more touchdowns than almost anybody in the conference. And the national awards still treat him like an afterthought.
That’s the part that annoys me. The production is right there. The film is right there. The numbers are way better than several guys who made the list. But the name recognition and the recruiting stars apparently still matter more than what actually happened on Saturdays.
I’ve watched this movie before with Tennessee players. They do everything the right way, put up the numbers, and still get overlooked until they force the conversation. Bishop has been forcing it for a year now. Apparently that still wasn’t enough for the people who make these watch lists.
Look, I get that these things are partly about projection and partly about reputation. But when a returning All SEC back with over a thousand yards and sixteen scores can’t crack a list of sixty, the process starts looking a little broken. Or at least very lazy.
Bishop has heard this noise his whole career. Underrated coming out of high school. Underrated as a walk on. Underrated even after he proved he could carry the load in the SEC. At some point you stop getting mad and just accept that this is the fuel he runs on.
I’m not saying the Doak Walker committee owes him anything. I’m saying the tape and the stats already made the case and they still looked the other way. That’s on them.
Bishop’s used to it. The rest of us are just getting tired of watching it happen to Tennessee players year after year.