Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel should thank The Athletic for the gift they gave UT football on Friday. 

The Athletic hit the Vols with some disrespect on Friday that Tennessee absolutely can (and should) use as motivation/bulletin board material this fall.

“We play with a chip on our shoulder at Tennessee. We get a lot of disrespect.” — Hendon Hooker at the combine (?: College Football Playbook) pic.twitter.com/hwOXWCAo8l

— zach ragan (@zachTNT) March 7, 2023

The Athletic's SEC preview that was published on Friday has the conference broken down into tiers. 

And tier one includes just three teams: Georgia, Alabama, and LSU. 

Tennessee is listed in tier two along with Texas A&M (the Aggies went 5-7 last season while the Vols went 11-2). 

We already know that Tennessee's players don't agree with being ranked below LSU and Alabama after beating both teams last season, so I can't imagine how they'll react to this obviously terrible take. 

Vols redshirt senior tight end Jacob Warren suggested earlier this summer that it's "absurd" for Tennessee to be ranked behind Alabama and LSU. 

"I don't make the rankings — that's not my deal — but it's a bit absurd to me," said Warren during an appearance on Off The Hook Sports in July. "Just because — you gotta go on what's happened, the most recent thing that's happened. And we had the same debate last year whenever they were coming out with the final rankings for the season and they ranked Alabama above us. And then you look through the list of things and it says okay, you know, strength of schedule and point differential and head to head win and all these things are lining up for us. And they're still gonna get placed ahead of us just because of that of the title, just because of the name."

Senior offensive lineman Cooper Mays shared a similar sentiment during a separate appearance on Off the Hook Sports. 

"Even at the end of the year, they (Alabama) were ranked above us — that made no sense to me personally," said Mays. "Because, I mean, I don't know how you beat two teams and then in the same year, they're considered better. I mean, maybe if you beat those two teams and you lost every single other game or something like that….So I don't really know how we got disrespected so [much] at the end of the year. But I think we went out versus Clemson and we showed a lot about who we are and what we're about."

It's clear that Tennessee's players are entering the 2023 season with a chip on their shoulder. And this blatant disrespect from The Athletic — how can the Vols be in a tier below two teams they beat last season (especially an LSU team that UT destroyed in Baton Rouge) — will only enhance the chip on UT's shoulder. 

The Vols are at their best under Josh Heupel when they're doubted. And it's obvious that not everyone is fully bought in to the idea that Tennessee football is a championship contender this fall. 

Using disrespect — real or perceived — as motivation worked for Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs in 2022. It even worked for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs last season (many analysts felt like the Chiefs would fade without wide receiver Tyreek Hill). So why can't it work for the Vols in 2023? 

Why a big weakness for Tennessee could be on the verge of turning into a strength

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Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK