Joey Aguilar puts new spin on Nick Saban’s classic use of ‘rat poison’
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Rat poison became part of college football lingo thanks to Nick Saban. Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar is putting a bit of a different spin on the term.
Saban used rat poison to refer to media hype and praise for his team. He worried that it would all go to his players’ heads and they might lose their edge and not play with the right mindset. Aguilar appears to be using the term to apply to all outside noise, including criticism.
After leading Tennessee to victory over Syracuse, Aguilar was asked about cornerback Colton Hood saying the Vols had proven their “haters and doubters” wrong. Aguilar labeled the criticism “rat poison.”
“All the outside noise is just rat poison,” Aguilar told media members. “We only focus about who’s in the building and the team we’ve got, so we’ve got to go back, execute, dial in, in everything we’ve got.”
“Everything outside is all rat poison, and we’ve just got to focus on ourselves.”
Whether avoiding “rat poison” means ignoring positive or negative coverage, it clearly worked for the Vols. No. 24 UT defeated Syracuse 45-26 to open the season.
Joey Aguilar and the #Vol aren't paying any attention to the haters.
— Paige Dauer (@PaigeDauerFDP) August 30, 2025
"Everything outside is rat poison." pic.twitter.com/9y4vpnvoIA
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
