On Saturday evening, Tennessee football dropped to 8-2 on the 2024 season with a tough loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. While the Volunteers raced out to a 10-0 start in this game, they were ultimately outscored 31-7 after the first quarter, dropping the game by a final score of 31-17.

Some insult was added to injury during head coach Josh Heupel's postgame press conference. While the Volunteers coach was answering questions from media members, someone in the press room's phone went off multiple times, and their ring tone just so happened to be the fight song for Georgia football, per Mike Wilson of the Knoxville News Sentinel on X, formerly Twitter.

Huepel didn't show any visible reaction to the interruption while answering questions, but it couldn't have felt good for a head coach who had to listen to that same fight song play during the several touchdowns the Georgia Bulldogs scored in the final three quarters earlier in the evening.

Overall, it was a disappointing result for a Volunteers team that was hoping this would be the year that they would end their losing streak to Georgia, which has lasted since they last beat the Bulldogs on a hail mary throw in 2016.

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Heupel has done a good job of making Tennessee football contenders once again during his relatively short time with the program, including winning two out of the last three matchups vs Alabama, but that hasn't translated to wins against the Bulldogs quite yet.

Tennessee still has a chance to make the college football playoff due to the new 12 team format, assuming they win their final two games of the season. However, a berth in the SEC Championship Game is now likely off the table after the loss in Athens.

In any case, Tennessee will next take the field on Saturday at home against UTEP.