Vols still have no SEC victory

ATHENS, Ga. — By itself, a 26-14 road loss to the 10th-ranked football team in the country probably isn’t embarrassing.

But Saturday didn’t stand alone.

Two weekends into October, Tennessee team is winless in the Southeastern Conference.

Volunteers sophomore wide receiver Gerald Jones threw both hands in the hair Saturday night, and he wasn’t celebrating touchdowns. Jones was looking for answers after another setback, this one to Georgia in Sanford Stadium.

Effort isn’t the problem, Jones said. He couldn’t rule out anything else.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Jones said. “If I had a million guesses, I probably wouldn’t get it right. I don’t know what’s going on.”

An inept offense, an invisible third-down defense and a lack of discipline have inevitably rendered the Vols impotent in the SEC.

Georgia missed several opportunities to pad its lead, letting UT hang around well into the second half. The Vols converted just four third downs in 12 chances, stringing three of them together for a touchdown that kept the game interesting.

A 12-yard, third-down touchdown pass from Nick Stephens to Lucas Taylor put the Vols within 20-14 with less than six minutes left in the third quarter, but then the Bulldogs played keep-away.

“I don’t know how long they had the ball, but it was a long time,” frustrated Vols coach Phillip Fulmer said.

Georgia held the ball longer than 11 minutes in the third quarter, and an even more preposterous 12:11 in the fourth.

The Bulldogs finished with more than 42 minutes of possession.

“Any time someone has the ball 40 minutes on you in a 60-minute game, you’re not going to win,” said UT senior linebacker Ellix Wilson, who collected a game-high 16 tackles.

The Vols punted (on a fourth-and-1) with 13:44 left, pinning the Bulldogs inside their 15-yard line.

Seventeen plays, 76 yards and 10:55 later, Blair Walsh’s fourth field goal finished the scoring with 2:49 left.

Georgia ran 81 plays for 458 yards, collected 29 first downs and converted seven of its first 12 third downs.

The Vols ran 45 plays for 209 yards, surrendering 97 yards on 10 penalties — four of them personal fouls that gave the Bulldogs a first down.

Georgia’s last drive of the second half was a series of nicks and cuts. Its final first-half possession was a series of gashes, with plenty of help from UT.

Personal-foul calls on defensive backs Demetrice Morley (helmet-to-helmet, unnecessary roughness) and DeAngelo Willingham (out-of-bounds hit) accounted for 30 of the 97 yards Georgia drove in 2:08. Matthew Stafford’s 9-yard pass to Mohamed Massaquoi nine seconds before the break put Georgia up 20-7.

UT’s only other third-down conversion — a 2-yard touchdown pass from Stephens to Jones — had just gotten the Vols back in the game.

“That killed us, absolutely killed us,” Fulmer said. “That was unbelievable. That was a good drive by them, but we sure helped them.

“You get a personal-foul penalty, that’s usually a lack of composure. I think the frustration from the season is showing through. It was misguided (actions) between being competitive versus being stupid.”

UT senior defensive end Robert Ayers said he didn’t think his teammates were “intentionally” delivering any unnecessary shots.

“It was just guys being aggressive and making bone-headed plays,” said Ayers, whose had one of the two interceptions that stopped Georgia drives deep in Vols territory. “It happens to the best.”

And the worst.

Worst in the SEC, at least.

“Penalties go both ways,” Wilson said. “Today they went against us. We’re not going to talk about that. We just played bad.”

Jones said he thought the Vols showed “frustration based on letting them to us, as far as what they were saying in the game.

“Or it could be just be being too physical,” Jones continued. “When a man’s going out of bounds, let him go instead of trying knock the (stuff) out of them.

“Now, some of those calls, I think they were (ridiculous). Honestly, I really do, and I’m going to speak my mind. But for the most part, we were roughing people up after the play, and that’s just lack of staying focused.”

The Vols — who now face an uphill battle to avoid a second losing season in four years, and third since 1988 — face Mississippi State at home Saturday night.

“We’re playing hard, but we just have to play better than this,” Morley said. “I know we’re better than this.”