ATHENS, Ga. – No team ever wants to lose – and that goes without saying. But on the opposite side of that, many teams are able to be much better than they were before after they reflect on a defeat and make changes moving forward.
That's what Tennessee is hoping to do following Saturday's 27-13 loss to Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens – the No. 1 ranked Vols' first setback of the 2022 campaign.
Tennessee significantly struggled against the No. 3 Bulldogs – committing a number of self-inflicted wounds, including more than a handful of uncharacteristic false start penalties – and could never get into a rhythm on either side of the ball. Georgia jumped out to a comfortable lead, and the Vols' play wasn't good enough for a comeback.
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel knows firsthand that his team has to be much better. The Vols had performed like a No. 1 team up to Saturday, and now they know what needs to happen so they can be better heading down the stretch of the season.
"Obviously disappointed in the outcome of the football game," Heupel said. "Credit to Georgia – they run critical plays, they played cleaner early in the football game. Offensively, early in the football game, false starts, the communication issues hurt us. Defensively, we didn't play well in the early part of the game.
"All in all, just critical plays, critical opportunities when you're on the plus side of the 50 – we didn't win any of those. ... That's a credit to them, and there's obviously some things we've got to be better at, too."
Although Tennessee now has a loss on its résumé, it's not a bad loss – by any means. Georgia has proven itself to be the top team in college football at this point, and the Vols can take plenty of things away from Saturday's setback.
How can they be better about preventing false starts? How can the secondary step up and be better in deep coverage? How can they perform better in tough road environments? Those are all key notes on Tennessee's white board at the moment.
The Vols' primary goal for this season has been making it to the SEC championship game. Although the loss to Georgia hurts their chances of doing that, it's not out of the picture for Tennessee to possibly represent the SEC East in that big contest later this year.
There's just a lot of work to be done until then.
"Getting to Atlanta's a whole lot tougher now," Heupel said. " ... That's the No. 1 goal inside our program. ... Our kids have handled a bunch of adversity throughout their careers inside of this program. They've continued to fight and scratch and claw and be connected, come together.
"There's no doubt in my mind when we get back in the building on Monday that they'll continue to do that. That's how we got to the point in making this a big football game. We've got to go reset and continue to grow – individually and collectively – as a program. Everybody's got a hand in this, starting with me and our staff and our players. ... Learn and grow and continue to climb as a program."
Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker – who's a veteran leader for the Vols – has a positive mindset following the loss. He made it clear that the team must shake it off and move forward.
"This is a learning experience," Hooker said. "Just playing in this environment and not having the outcome that we wanted, it's tough. It's tough. ... But continuing to push forward and continuing to chip away and do the right things – day after day, time after time – is the most important thing."
The Vols will try to bounce back next Saturday when they host Missouri at Neyland Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. ET in the final home game of the season.
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