The Tennessee Vols are a missed field goal away from being the most hyped team in college football right now.

If Vols kicker Max Gilbert had made the 43-yard field goal at the end of regulation to beat the Georgia Bulldogs last weekend, Tennessee would probably be a top five team right now.

Instead, Gilbert missed the kick and the Bulldogs won the game in overtime.

Despite the loss, Tennessee is still receiving a significant amount of hype from the national media — it’s just not quite as intense as it would be had the Vols won the game last Saturday.

Is Tennessee the first program to deal with “rat poison” after a loss?

The national media is higher on Tennessee after the loss to Georgia than they were going into the game against the Bulldogs.

Tennessee played extremely well against the Bulldogs. The final play in regulation, however, just didn’t go the Vols’ way.

Typically, there’s some negative outside noise after an SEC loss. But that hasn’t really been the case for the Vols this week. If anything, the narrative surrounding Tennessee football is more positive than ever.

More people are seeing Tennessee as a College Football Playoff contender after their loss to Georgia than they did before.

In other words, the Vols are unexpectedly dealing with Nick Saban’s biggest nightmare — rat poison — despite losing their last game.

Coming into this season, one of the biggest off-the-field strengths for the Vols was the chip on their shoulder. Tennessee’s players made it clear before the season that they were aware that no one in the media was giving them much a chance this fall.

“The media is counting us out,” said Vols true freshman quarterback George MacIntyre in July. “We love that. We want to go out there and prove ourselves this year.”

“The coaches don’t talk about it, and we’re just focused on getting better,” continued MacIntyre. “But we’d be lying [if we said] we didn’t see it. So it puts a chip on our shoulder.”

“I just love it how we truly do have this chip on our shoulder and that there’s not a whole lot of spotlight on us right now,” said Vols senior tight end Miles Kitselman before the season. “There’s a lot of people that don’t expect anything out of us.”

Tennessee can’t let the positive outside noise (rat poison) rob them of their edge. They have to keep the chip on their shoulder regardless of what’s being said by the media or on social media. It’s somewhat of a superpower for the Vols under Josh Heupel.

All of the Vols’ goals, except for an undefeated season, are still on the table. But they haven’t earned any of them yet—they’ll do that one day at a time, for the rest of the season. They just can’t let the “rat poison” take their focus off winning each day, one rep at a time.

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