The Tennessee Volunteers have displayed dazzle, determination and resiliency this football season.
This week, they've shown some honesty as well, as players admit an 8-0 record and being No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings heading into Saturday afternoon's test at reigning national champion Georgia were beyond their wildest expectations when Josh Heupel took over the smoldering program in January 2021.
"It's very surprising being in a situation like this," Vols junior defensive tackle Omari Thomas said. "It's something you really dream of."
Tennessee is perfect entering November's first weekend for the first time since 1998, when the Vols were pursuing what would become their second Associated Press national championship. They have catapulted into the national title landscape overnight, with this season's surge following a 14-year run in which they were an uninspiring 85-88.
In the five seasons preceding this one, Tennessee's records through eight games were 3-5, 3-5, 3-5, 2-6 and 4-4.
"When I first got here, it wasn't like this," fifth-year senior left guard Jerome Carvin said. "It's exciting to see how this program has turned around. It started this past offseason, when Coach Heupel preached about expecting to win.
"You're going to play a lot of tough teams and a lot of ranked teams in the SEC, but it's all about your preparation and your work. When things don't go right, you lean back on your preparation."
Tennessee had a successful start under Heupel, posting a 7-5 regular season a year ago before falling to Purdue in the Music City Bowl. That showed significant improvement over the three-win Vols of 2020 in Jeremy Pruitt's third and final year, but this season's team still started outside the AP Top 25.
An opening 59-10 win over Ball State moved the Vols into the poll at No. 24, and their climb was just beginning. Even the most optimistic of Vols fans figured that a 10-2 record with losses to Alabama and Georgia would be sensational, but Tennessee scrapped that script with a 52-49 upset of the Crimson Tide on Oct. 15.
"What everybody was missing is that we're a hard-working team," junior receiver Jalin Hyatt said, "and we don't let the outside noise correlate to what we're doing in the building. That's one thing Coach Heup preaches. We know what kind of team we have.
"We know our identity, and I think that's one of the biggest things we changed this year from last year. We know where we want to go and where we're headed."
Tennessee could take a gargantuan step to its first Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title since 2007 with a victory inside Sanford Stadium, but the Bulldogs (8-0, 5-0 SEC) could all but wrap up a fifth East crown in six seasons by downing the Vols (4-0 SEC). Regardless of the outcome in Athens, the Vols have been the surprise story of college football.
Which followed the lengthiest dark stretch in program history.
"This is the group of individuals who chose to stay," Heupel said. "They've grown individually as to who they are and what they're about collectively. They care about each other, and once you start having a group like that, you can cover a lot of ground really quickly as a football program.
"Obviously we've taken some huge strides, but this week is a really big test."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.