Rocky Top Tennessee is at the peak of the initial CFP rankings. Undefeated Tennessee now has the inside track to the national title game and the fans are filled with hope.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel is proud of the accomplishment but is well aware there’s still plenty of games left to determine the team’s fate. Heupel spoke about being ranked No. 1 during an interview on ESPN following the release of the initial rankings.

“I don’t know that we placed a timeframe on it. I think that’s one of the things that actually had our players buy into what we’re doing. We never set a ceiling. Obviously our guys’ habits have allowed us to play really consistently here in the early part of the season,” Heupel said. “There’s a long ways to go, we obviously have a huge test this week in Athens, Georgia, but I love competing with this team every Saturday.”

Heupel also discussed the challenges for the explosive Tennessee offense when the Vols take on host No. 3 Georgia on Saturday.

“For any offense that goes on the road, it’s a little bit different in your communication. You have to be super efficient, you’ve got to communicate extremely well, obviously you’re going to be on a silent count,” Heupel said. “That’s something that we use at home here as well, but it will be important for us to get the chains moving and stay ahead of things and not let the crowd get into it in some of those third and long situations.”

This is just a step in the process for Tennessee, but Heupel still wants his players to reflect on the massive strides made.

“We talked about it earlier in the week knowing the rankings were going to come out, didn’t know where we would be ranked, but figured we’d be somewhere near the top and at the end of the day, one of the things our players have done here is we’ve tried to enjoy the journey and take moments of pause to reflect and enjoy what our players have built here, they’ve built this,” Heupel said. “And 3 years ago it didn’t look like this, but this is a proud tradition and a massive fan base that loves the Power T and they’re excited about the way our players are playing. Embrace it, they understand that the reason we’re in this situation is because of the way we prepare, the way we practice and then we go play for each other on game day. It’s going to be the same message this Saturday.”

Tennessee-Georgia will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on CBS. Georgia currently is on a 5-game winning vs. Tennessee, as the Bulldogs lead the all-time series 26-23-2.