Ladies and gentlemen, friends of the Friday Funny, I hope you’re as excited as I am for tomorrow. The biggest football game of the year will take place on November 5 in Athens, Georgia. That’s where the #2 ranked University of Tennessee Volunteers are going to hand the defending National Champions, the Georgia Bulldogs, their first loss and cement the Vols’ shot at the SEC Championship game in Atlanta.

When I last spoke of football on Rocky Top, I’ll admit I was apprehensive about Florida. Sure, the Vols got revenge from last year on Pitt, but I wasn’t sure we had the gear in us to beat the Gators.

Boy was I glad to be wrong there. Not only did we beat the Gators, we went to Death Valley and made LSU look like absolute fools.

Then Alabama’s vaunted Crimson Tide came to Neyland Stadium, and for the first time in 16 years we slayed the dragon Nick Saban built.

Still on guard after a win against UT-Martin, we invited Kentucky into Neyland Stadium and made them look like a Division 1 high school team.

Now comes the biggest test to date. Georgia’s no slouch. You don’t get to be a national champion with a sloppy, inconsistent team.

But Georgia’s not looked like the Dawgs of old this year. And clearly people are noticing, because Tuesday night the CFB Playoff Committee released their first rankings of the season.

And for the first time since the Playoffs began in 2014, the Vols weren’t just ranked.

They were ranked at number one.

Georgia? Number three.

So Georgia’s got every right to be nervous about the Vols coming into their house and beating them down. We’ll do it because right now the Vols can put up 40 points any given Saturday on any team in the nation.

We’ll do it with Hendon Hooker, the Vegas favorite for the Heisman Trophy this year. He’ll go into Sanford Stadium with a full complement of weapons from which to choose.

There’s Cedric Tillman, a dream wide receiver. Jabari Small, a bullet of a human who’s good for at least 4-5 yards on a run once he’s got the ball. Princeton Fant and Bru McCoy are both standouts at their respective positions.

And let’s not forget a kid named Jalin Hyatt who put up five touchdowns on Alabama.

Speaking of Alabama? I think we’re still paying for those new goalposts. I don’t give a damn. It’s worth it watching these teams who’ve walked over UT for decades sweat.

Georgia’s not ready for the defense we’ve got either. There’s honestly no better story in college football than that of Byron Young, who in 2019 was a manager at a Dollar General store until he saw flyers for walk-on tryouts at the Georgia Military College. Now he’s one of the most dominant defensive ends in the nation. His linebacker compatriot, Jeremy Banks, is the kind of guy who’d bowl anyone over just to get a shot at a quarterback.

I invite you to watch the festivities on Saturday if you can. You’ll get to see the Vols run a 3 plays per minute offense and tough physicality from the defense if you’ve yet to see how special this team really is.

Georgia’s not looking forward to it, but Tennessee sure is. We’re ready to make “Rocky Top” the earworm of the day for everyone in Sanford Stadium and all the folks watching at home.

The more I think about it, the more excited I get. It’s going to be a party in Athens when Big Orange shocks the world and knocks Georgia off their high horse.

If on the off chance we lose, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s expected. Georgia’s going into this an 8 point favorite as of this writing.

But when we win? That’s when things get interesting.

Happy Friday, everyone and we’ll see you next week here at SJ’s Friday Funny. I hope you get to watch the Game of the Year tomorrow. I know I will.

And to close this week I’ll appropriate something I heard a drunk guy say after we lost to Georgia at home one year when Dr. S. and I could make the game at Neyland Stadium.

“I’d rather die a Tennessee Vol than live as a goddamn Georgia Bulldog.”