KNOXVILLE – The past few weeks haven’t been the best for Tennessee’s football program.
Three losses in the first five games have created a dour atmosphere for the Volunteers, which couldn’t have made the preparations for Saturday’s visit from 19th-ranked Georgia any easier.
Third-year coach Butch Jones said earlier this week that the adversity of the defeats against Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas – Tennessee led all three by at least 13 points – has “galvanized” his team.
Whether that’s the truth or not won’t be apparent until Saturday.
“We’ll never lose motivation,” linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin said. “We’ll never lose focus. It might look like that from the outside, but internally we’ve got a strong group of guys. We don’t let these past games affect us. The Oklahoma game hasn’t come back, or the Florida game hasn’t come back to bite us. It’s each game is a new game.