Josh Heupel anticipates Tennessee to handle Georgia's crowd well

There are plenty of people calling the Tennessee–Georgia game the Game of the Year. Others are giving it the ‘Game of the Century’ designation because it’s a one versus two game in the AP Top 25 Poll. Either way, unless there is chaos after this game, it should decide the SEC East and practically guarantee a College Football Playoff spot to the winner.

While speaking to the media, Josh Heupel was asked if he was concerned about the road environment at Sanford Stadium, or if he thought that Tennessee’s tempo would counter that crowd noise in some way.

“We’ll find out on gameday,” Josh Heupel said. “But, at the end of the day, there’s been times since we’ve gotten here that we’ve handled being on the road extremely well. There’s other times where we haven’t handled it.”

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“A lot of that’s us,” Josh Heupel said, referring to the coaching staff. “You know, the communication and playing smart football will be important on Saturday, but I anticipate us handling it well.”

Josh Heupel then joked with the next reporter to ask a question that he was wearing a “bright shade of red.” This drew a laugh from the press, while the reporter finished asking about how different Heupel expected the environment at Sanford Stadium to be.

“Yeah, I anticipate it being a great environment. Big football game. Obviously, they’ve been highly successful and their fan base is excited for this one too. Ours is too. But, it’ll be a great environment, so anticipate crowd noise being part of the football game for sure.”

Tennessee and Georgia are set to kickoff at 3:30 PM on Saturday. The game will be televised on CBS.

Josh Heupel is proud of Tennessee’s No. 1 rankings

When the initial College Football Playoff rankings came out, Tennessee was ranked first. In just his second season, Josh Heupel steadied the ship and made the Volunteers one of college football’s great teams again.

It remains to be seen if Tennessee can hold onto that ranking, but for now, Josh Heupel is incredibly proud of his team.

“I’m absolutely proud of what we’ve done up until this point, from the time we’ve gotten here until now. There’s a lot of things that we need to continue to get better at, but the reality is that’s the first show, the first rankings. Everybody remembers what you do in November. The only one that matters is the last one,” Josh Heupel said.

“The reason we’ve gotten to the point where this is a big football game is because we’ve handled things the right way. Coaches and players alike. Preparation and practice and understanding the type of football team (we’re playing). This is a really good football team and they’ve been winning for a while. Great opportunity for us.”