The Tennessee Volunteers are the only team left on Georgia’s schedule with a losing record, but don’t expect Bulldogs football coach Mark Richt to swell with overconfidence this Saturday at Sanford Stadium.

“Tennessee is a tremendous program, and Phillip Fulmer is one of the winningest coaches in the conference and the country,” Richt said Sunday afternoon. “They’ve got a good football team, too. If you sit there and watch that film, you would understand. They’re trying to get settled at quarterback, but everywhere else they look like the rest of our league.

“I certainly don’t want to paint a picture that we’ve got it all together and they don’t, because I don’t think that’s the case.”

Georgia is 4-1, ranked 10th nationally and looking to rebound from a 41-30 home loss to Alabama on Sept. 27. The Bulldogs also will be looking to bounce back from 51-33 and 35-14 whippings applied by the Vols the past two seasons.

Richt has a 4-3 record against Tennessee, but the Vols are the only team to hand him consecutive double-digit defeats.

Sophomore tailback Knowshon Moreno (elbow contusion) will play against the Vols, Richt said, while junior receiver Kris Durham (ankle), senior tight end Tripp Chandler (shoulder) and junior defensive end Roderick Battle (neck) will not. Senior linebacker Dannell Ellerbe (knee) remains questionable.

“The big key is going to be how he feels,” Richt said. “If he feels well as the week goes on but doesn’t get any reps, it’s going to be harder for him to really understand the game plan and be at his peak ability.”

Joining the offense for the first time this season will be senior fullback Brannan Southerland, who Richt said should provide “a little more punch” in two-back, three-receiver sets.

Richt spent his Saturday off by driving with his family to watch a morning practice at Clemson, where his oldest son, Jon, is a freshman quarterback. When asked about the open date, he said the Bulldogs are at a similar point to where they were a year ago at their open date, which preceded the 42-30 win over Florida.

“I actually pulled out my notes from a year ago and looked up exactly what our goals were during that two-week time,” he said, “and I really tried to mirror it pretty closely, because I think we’re just right about where we were then.”

Since the start of the 2002 season, Richt is 9-1 in regular-season games when coming off an open date. Some of his most resounding triumphs have followed off weeks, such as the 51-7 win over Georgia Tech in ’02, the 26-7 win over Auburn in ’03, the 45-16 win over LSU in ’04, the 27-14 win at Tennessee in ’05 and last year’s Florida game.

“It is an advantage, certainly,” Richt said. “Even a year ago, Tennessee played us and they had the open date and we didn’t, and it showed. I hope it becomes a very positive thing for us. They had to play a game. They had to play a hard-fought game, and they had less time to rest and less time to think about Georgia. We’ve had more time to think about them, and hopefully that will pay off for us.

“It’s never a guarantee, but everybody knows they have one or two a year where they’re going to have the advantage and the other team doesn’t and vice versa.”