Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs have turned the rivalry against Tennessee into a one-sided history lesson. Eight straight wins. A 55-game series dating back to 1989 reduced to Georgia dominance. The lone blemish is a Hail Mary back in 2016 during his debut season. So the question is can Tennessee show up like David Pollack said they would? 

David Pollack decided to throw a warning right at the current QB. Gunner Stockton will be walking into his first true road start inside Neyland Stadium to face Josh Heupel and the Volunteers. This is no ordinary test because this stadium is a jet engine of noise. In a new episode on See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack on September 11, he recalled the 2001 Travis Stephens screen pass at Neyland, the moment he swore was the loudest any stadium got for him. “I couldn’t hear a thing. I couldn’t hear myself,” he said. That’s the decibel level Georgia is walking into.

Tennessee (2-0) is humming offensively after hanging 72 points on East Tennessee State. At Neyland, they’re 21-1 since 2022, the lone loss stamped courtesy of Georgia. Josh Heupel has slain Alabama and Florida demons, but against Kirby Smart, he’s still searching. Tennessee’s fireworks tend to fizzle when Bulldog corners play man-to-man and linebackers squeeze the box. That’s where the skepticism kicks in. People still haven’t seen enough to decide if Joey Aguilar could be an elite SEC QB. 

Still, Neyland will be checkered in orange and white. Andre Turrentine swears Vol Nation will rattle Georgia’s offense. Gunner Stockton is 2-1 as a starter with 417 passing yards, two scores, and the legs to scramble for 73 in the opener. Across the field, the Vols QB from App State already has five touchdown tosses and averages 267 yards through the air. But Saturday will reveal how SEC-ready he really is. If ever there was a stage for Josh Heupel to flip the narrative, this is it. 

David Pollack reflects on Josh Heupel’s past

Pollack steps in with a dose of reality on Josh Heupel’s past record and he didn’t sugarcoat his take. “I don’t know if either quarterback is elite,” he said, before pivoting to the bigger picture of what surrounds them. In his view, the supporting cast and matchups, not just Gunner Stockton or Joey Aguilar, will decide this border war. He then dropped a stat that should rattle Tennessee fans. 

“Georgia’s got Tennessee’s number. They’ve won eight straight. Heupel averages almost 40 points a game and against Kirby & company, he averages 14. How about that? Average 14 points,” he said. The Bulldogs’ man-to-man approach on the outside and confidence in the trenches have suffocated the Vols every single year. “They’re not going to let you dictate to them like a lot of teams thought like a lot of Josh Heupel does that to a lot of defenses and he’s not going to let you do that because he also feels confident in his box as well as to dominate and to get home,” he added. And the numbers back him up. 

Tennessee hasn’t topped 6.9 yards per attempt against Georgia under Josh Heupel, with just two passing touchdowns total. The question now is can Neyland noise and a fresh O-line debut finally change that?