KNOXVILLE - Jeremy Pruitt came away from the Tennessee football program's Anderson Training Center encouraged on Sunday, the day after his team dropped a deflating 47-21 contest to Florida.
"I'm walking through the offices, and our offices are littered with our players watching tape," Pruitt said Monday. "I had no idea they were up there."
The first-year Tennessee coach later said, "I think a lot of our guys are itching to get going again, which is a good thing."
Getting going again requires facing a brutal truth.
Tennessee is gearing up for what is perhaps the toughest three-game stretch any college football team will face this season. The gauntlet begins Saturday at Georgia, when the Volunteers (2-2, 0-1 SEC) face the second-ranked Bulldogs (4-0, 2-0) at 3:30 p.m.
Georgia began the week as a 32.5 point favorite in a rivalry that was decided by seven points or less each meeting from 2012 to 2016. That streak ended last season when the Bulldogs won 41-0 - Tennessee's worst loss at Neyland Stadium in over a century.
A woeful performance against Florida did little to indicate this season's margin will be any closer between two programs trending in opposite directions.
Since Tennessee's Hail Mary victory at Sanford Stadium in 2016, the Vols are 2-13 in the SEC, while Georgia is 12-3 against conference foes under third-year coach Kirby Smart.
"I see a physical football team," Pruitt said of the Bulldogs. "They are big up front. I thought (Georgia quarterback) Jake Fromm was the most efficient quarterback that we played against last year."
Pruitt coordinated an Alabama defense that squeaked out a victory over Georgia in January's national championship game. The next day, he reported to Knoxville to devote his full attention to rebuilding a Tennessee program that showed this past Saturday just how far it has fallen.
"Everybody associated with Tennessee has got to be disappointed in how things turned out Saturday," Pruitt said. "Nobody is more disappointed than the men in this building. I think everybody involved is trying to find a way to get it right."
The player-organized Sunday video session gave Pruitt a morsel of positivity to offer during his Monday news conference.
"There's a group of guys that had them in there, talking about players and being leaders," Pruitt said. "I guess they organized it. That's the first time I've seen that, but I saw some ownership during the game the other day that excites me about moving forward."
Senior defensive end Kyle Phillips confirmed that players organized the gathering, and sophomore offensive lineman Trey Smith explained how it differed from other video-watching sessions.
"The intensity was a lot higher there," Smith said. "We want to fix our mistakes; we want to be better. We don't want to keep playing that way."
Tennessee's off week follows its trip to Georgia. After that, the Vols play at No. 10 Auburn and host No. 1 Alabama.
It's a stretch that could easily leave the Vols 2-5 overall and with a 13-game SEC losing streak, though they do not appear ready to face that outcome submissively.
"I came here to play against these opponents, and I'm pretty sure each and every one of my teammates came here to play against these big-league opponents," Phillips said. "That's what you come to an SEC school for is to play those teams, to play those games."
Phillips and Tennessee's other upperclassmen remember what it felt like to start 5-0 and rise to No. 9 in the country in 2016 when Joshua Dobbs' last-second heave to Jauan Jennings lifted the Vols to an improbable win on their last trip to Georgia.
"I just remember that was a great feeling leaving the field," Phillips said, "and I want to have that same feeling leaving the field again."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.