When Tennessee football visited Athens, Ga., nearly three years ago, the Vols were feeling themselves just a bit too much. Hendon Hooker was a well-deserved Heisman candidate, they were undefeated in November after scoring their first win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in 16 years, and they were in the midst of their best season in over two decades.

Then came the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings that Tuesday before kickoff, and the Vols came in at No. 1, while the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs were ranked No. 3. Erik Ainge went public and said Sanford Stadium isn’t that loud. Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard all picked the Vols on College GameDay.

The result was a 27-13 thumping in a game that wasn’t that close, reminding Tennessee football that they weren’t in the same stratosphere as the Dawgs…yet. Now, the Vols are set to host UGA in a very similar situation: With College GameDay in town while dealing with a ton of surrounding hype and the narrative shifting toward them.

National analysts like Greg McElroy and Georgia grad Aaron Murray have picked the Vols to win. The line moved from Georgia -7 on Saturday to Georgia -3.5 on Monday. With all this comes a new question: Will what Nick Saban referred to as “rat poison” result in Georgia dominating Tennessee football in response to all the noise the way they did in 2022?

Don’t worry Vol fans. That doesn’t apply here. Sure, Georgia could definitely win, but it won’t be in some sore of response to the hype that was being ginned up against them in the week leading up to the game. The location of this game, the narrowing talent gap between the two schools and the level of experience Georgia has will make sure of that.

When the two faced off in 2022, they met in Athens, which led to Ainge’s comments. Josh Heupel struggles in general on the road, but against a UGA fan base determined to prove Ainge wrong, it was even worse. It was generally the perfect storm of things set to go wrong. This year, he’s at home, where he is undefeated since November in 2021 except for two games.

Now, the elephant in the room on that is Georgia is the team to beat them in Knoxville both times. However, those were in 2021 and 2023, and neither year did Tennessee football have a College Football Playoff caliber team like it did in 2022 and 2024, when it went to Athens. As a result, you can’t take those games too seriously.

On the talent front, Tennessee football is less experienced but much closer to Georgia overall. NIL has narrowed gaps in general between schools, and that’s no different from the Vols. Don’t forget that in 2022 they were less than two years removed from half their roster being gutted after Jeremy Pruitt was fired for cause.

Schematically, the Vols now have the personnel for Heupel’s system to work better against UGA, specifically having speed on the outside at receiver in Mike Matthews. Cedric Tillman and Bru McCoy couldn’t do what Matthews could. Simply put, Georgia’s win in 2022 was more about talent than being motivated anyway.

Of course, Georgia is still more talented this year, but they are also less experienced. Stetson Bennett was leading the team in 2022. Now, Gunner Stockton, who is in his first road start, is leading the team. That should narrow an already narrower gap even more between the two schools when they face off on Saturday.

It’s also the crux of why this is different from 2022 in mentality.

Kirby Smart’s team was mature enough in 2022 to take the doubters in stride and use it as motivation. With insecure players, though, who tend to skew younger and have less experience at quarterback, the doubt makes them question themselves. That could play a huge role in what the Dawgs do Saturday.

Taking all this into account, Georgia could certainly still win the game, but Tennessee football has a lot more things going for it than the Vols did in 2022 when they last had this level of hype. So don’t worry about the narrative motivating Georgia. It’s much more about the talent gap, and the Vols have somewhat addressed that a lot better this time around.