Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel sounds locked in for the Georgia game after the Vols' big win against ETSU

The Tennessee Vols are 2-0 to start the 2025 college football season after a dominant 72-17 win against East Tennessee State.

Tennessee's offense was clicking on all cylinders while putting up 717 yards of total offense.

It's a great start to the season for the Volunteers, but things get really real next week when the Georgia Bulldogs visit Knoxville for a big-time early season SEC showdown between two programs that went to the College Football Playoff a year ago.

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel already sounds locked in for the Georgia game

After the Vols' win against ETSU on Saturday, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was asked about the upcoming game against Georgia.

There was a noticeable intensity in Heupel's answer that seems to indicate that the fifth-year Vols head coach is already locked in for the showdown with the Bulldogs.

“Conference play starts on next Saturday -- we’re going to try to be the best football team on the field that Saturday," said Heupel. "We need to be at our best. I certainly know who they are as a program and what they are as a football team. It will take us being at our best -- and we’re going to need our fans to be at their best too next Saturday.”

Heupel is 0-4 against Georgia.

Tennessee lost those four games to Georgia by an average of 20 points.

Heupel understands the challenge ahead of his team. He knows what's at stake and what a win would mean for Tennessee -- that much was evident in the serious tone he carried as he answered the question about the Bulldogs.

For the Vols to get to where they want to go — which is winning the SEC and competing for a national championship — they’ll have to conquer their red-and-black demons in the Bulldogs.

We'll see next Saturday in Knoxville if they can.

window.addEventListener('message', function (event) {if (event.data.totalpoll && event.data.totalpoll.action === 'resizeHeight') {document.querySelector('#totalpoll-iframe-1476').height = event.data.totalpoll.value;}}, false);document.querySelector('#totalpoll-iframe-1476').contentWindow.postMessage({totalpoll: {action: 'requestHeight'}}, '*');