Tennessee not cowering to Georgia: 'We expect to win the (SEC) East'

The Tennessee Volunteers have high expectations for the 2023 college football season.

So high, in fact, that they're aiming for the back-to-back defending national champions -- which just so happen to be a part of their conference.

Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs aren't just the cream of the crop in the SEC East, they're the big dog in all of college football, having surpassed Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide. That's not deterring Tennessee, though.

With head coach Josh Heupel coming off an 11-2 record in his second season as head coach on Rocky Top, the Vols clearly feel they're ready to take the next step. And that means winning the division.

"That first year, we hoped to win. Now, we expect to win every game," senior defensive tackle Omari Thomas recently said, per ESPN. "There's a difference. Everybody on this team will tell you that we expect to win the East."

Tennessee's two losses last season came to Georgia and South Carolina. The up-and-coming Gamecocks will play Tennessee in late September, but make no mistake about it, the Vols' goals of being a major player in the 2023 College Football Playoff picture really run through UGA.

Last season's loss was a 27-13 stinker in Athens. In 2023, Tennessee plays host to the Bulldogs in mid-November in a game that could be for all the marbles in the division.

The Vols, of course, still have to beat the likes of Texas A&M and Alabama, but it almost seems as if that's an afterthought at this point for the team.

"We're just playing a game that we love and doing the things we want to do, and that's winning the East," quarterback Joe Milton III said. "That's something we've set our minds to and that's something we're willing to get done no matter what it takes."