KNOXVILLE - For those operating under the belief that Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt is rebuilding the program, there was only one necessary outcome for the Volunteers in last weekend's season opener against Georgia State.
It was supposed to be a win. How close it was shouldn't have mattered - at least not too much. The logical expectation was that Tennessee's starters would build a sizable lead against an opponent that went 2-10 last season, the reserves would come in and maintain or even add to that advantage and everyone in orange and white would go home happy.
With Tennessee favored by at least three touchdowns, there wasn't much goodwill to gain from a victory. That the Vols lost could wind up being far more damaging than any win would have been rewarding.
Now there are serious - and legitimate - questions regarding whether Pruitt is capable of guiding the program back to relevance, or at least to a bowl game or two in the meantime. Gone are the times when the November games against Vanderbilt and Kentucky also were expected wins: The Commodores have won the past three meetings between the intrastate rivals, and the Wildcats have split the past two matchups in a border series Tennessee has historically dominated.
You can add Georgia State to the list of Tennessee foes not to be taken for granted, and although the Vols have said all the right things this week about moving on from the surprising loss, they'll soon have a chance to prove it.
They're expected to face a much stiffer test Saturday night as BYU visits Neyland Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 and ESPN will televise the game. The Cougars also dropped their opener, although their 30-12 loss to Utah - which was ranked 14th at the time and moved up a spot in The Associated Press Top 25 this week - seems much easier to digest than the Vols' 38-30 defeat.
Defensive back Theo Jackson said there was a team meeting to hash out what went wrong against the Panthers and "not let this happen again." Offensive linemen Ryan Johnson and Brandon Kennedy referred to the game as a learning experience.
"Everything in the past is motivation," Johnson said. "You always have to use the past and learn from the past. It's important to learn from the past. I'm a big fan of history. My girlfriend gives me a hard time. Sometimes I'll be sitting there watching 'World War II in Colour' and she's like, 'I'm falling asleep.' Or I'm watching a documentary or something. But I really do. I enjoy history because you can learn a lot from history. You don't want to repeat the past, but you can also take things from the past and learn for the future, whether it's good or bad.
"That being said, I think we can learn a lot of things from Georgia State. It's important to remember, not just in football but in life, you've got to focus on what's up next. You've got to focus on the present, because if you keep dwelling in the past, then you're going to repeat the past. What we're trying to do is we're trying to learn from the past, lock and clear, and do our job to prepare for this game I think the guys have got a great mentality and a great mindset to do that."
On Wednesday, Pruitt said the Vols had practiced well to that point in the week - but he also noted they "had good practices all camp" and pointed to inexperience at some positions. The opener was supposed to give inexperienced players the chance to benefit from actual game situations, and while that may have happened for some of the Vols, the end result was a setback on the scoreboard and in perception regarding Pruitt's progress.
BYU has been a more successful program this decade than Tennessee, so a victory for the Vols could be beneficial in that regard, but now the margin for error is small, if not minuscule.
"We don't try to focus on that," Johnson said. "We really just try to focus on doing our job. The game of football is about you. It's about your team. A wise man once told me that when you're preparing for a football game, you should be preparing for yourself. What I mean by that is you should focus on you. You shouldn't focus on the other team. That's not to say that you shouldn't study the other team, but you should focus on doing the best you can. You can't let external factors, other things, get in the way because in reality, it's about you. It's about doing your job. That's all you can do.
"You can't worry about other things. You can't worry about all the other things in life. That's a life thing, really. You control what you can control. God's going to control everything else. You just have to control what you can control and know that you're not the one that's in charge. You're the one that can do everything you can do. That's all you have to do every day. You wake up and do the best that you can do, and that's enough."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.