ATHENS — Georgia outscored Tennessee 27-0 in the second half to record a 44-21 victory in Week 3 of a 10-game SEC-only season.
Following Georgia’s win, Bulldogs’ head coach Kirby Smart mentioned that he did not expect the game to end the way it did.
“I certainly didn’t expect it to go that way,” Smart said. “We didn’t start the way we needed to. We’ve got to show a lot of improvement in a lot of areas and just disappointed in our start to the game. Anytime you spot somebody seven (points), that’s not good.
“We gave up some explosive plays on defense, but the positives were we didn’t blink, we’ve got a very emotional team and I thought in the locker room, there were a lot of emotions shown. Tennessee’s got a good football team. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jeremy (Pruitt) and his staff, how hard his kids play, how physical they play. They play a really good brand of football, as we do too.”
Smart also discussed his team answering adversity after halftime, down 21-17.
“I think we’re a well-conditioned team and our team has taken pride in the conditioning level,” Smart said. “I think we’ve got a team that adjusts well, so if somebody’s giving us trouble with something, we have answers, we don’t just continue to do the same thing if we’re struggling with things.
“I’m proud of the effort they came out with in the second half with the momentum the defense created. We’re not executing at a high level and that can cause problems.”