KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — When the games and the crowds are huge at Neyland Stadium, and you get one that goes until or beyond the clock hits zeroes, you know this as a writer trying to get from press box to field when it ends: You will have to go through a throng of humans who have been hoping, screaming, sunbaking, guzzling beverages and pouring out their souls for hours.

And if their team just lost? Godspeed.

This was the case Saturday evening, moments after Georgia celebrated a 44-41 overtime win over Tennessee that probably shouldn’t have happened. Body odor, vodka and disappointment hung in the air in that tight corridor, trying to squeeze against a wall and break through to the freedom of the concourse. However, here’s what struck me about these fans, and a few minutes later, about their Volunteers: They were actually taking it pretty well.

And they should. They’ve got a quarterback. They’ve got a team. They’ve got a chance to do things that seemed about as likely as a sellout for a UCLA game at the Rose Bowl back when their previous quarterback bolted in the spring.

“There’s a lot to love in this football game,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after his fifth loss in five tries to Georgia coach Kirby Smart, though the Vols went 27 points beyond their average from the previous four.

“So much better,” said Joey Aguilar, that revelation of a quarterback, when asked how much improvement may lie ahead for his offense. “I don’t think there’s a limit.”

This is reality for the No. 15 Vols (2-1, 0-1 SEC), even if some may have a hard time breaking into a rendition of “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” after they blew a 38-30 lead with less than three minutes to play in regulation. Sunshine pumping isn’t the natural reaction to witnessing kicker Max Gilbert miss badly on a 43-yard try to win the game, nor to watching the No. 6 Bulldogs (3-0) steal it for themselves by running right through Tennessee’s defense in overtime.

“Tonight it’s gonna hurt,” Heupel said, “And we need to drink all that in and taste it, all of it.”

He said something to this effect several times in his news conference. Essentially, he’s hoping this hurts enough to galvanize this team and get it to further embrace the things coaches most want teams to embrace — “the details,” Heupel said.

However, he was kind of saying it in vain. Not that the Vols weren’t disappointed. Aguilar tried to blame himself several times after his 24-for-36, 371-yard, four-touchdown day, which included a 14-for-14 start, an interception when his receiver fell down and an expertly clutch drive to set Gilbert up for the would-be winner. Chris Brazzell looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but talking about the game after he caught six passes for 177 yards and three scores in it.

However, no tears were shed. There was no visible anger. No one needed to take a minute to compose himself. This probably has something to do with the fact that Tennessee largely outplayed the team that represents the program that still sets the standard for excellence in college football.

Also, it’s the reality of the sport. This was like a disappointed NFL postgame scene after a team loses to a rival. This was a reminder of what we’ve lost and gained in the College Football Playoff expansion from a field of four to a field of 12.

Parallels between this game and the program’s breakthrough win over Nick Saban and Alabama in 2022 were impossible to miss. That, like this, featured incredible quarterback/receiver performances from Tennessee. That, like this, saw a brilliant quarterback response on the other side, with Georgia’s Gunner Stockton playing the role of Alabama’s Bryce Young.

That, like this, saw the Vols driving late with the score tied for the winning field goal. South, toward the Tennessee River, where goal posts did swim after that 2022 win. As he lined up to try to win the game, Gilbert looked an awful lot like Chase McGrath, whose 40-yarder beat Saban’s Crimson Tide 52-49, got those goal posts uprooted and unleashed so much cigar smoke that tears were unavoidable.

So, let’s say Gilbert makes it. What would we have seen? A scene anything like the unhinged joy of three years ago? Of course not. That’s partially because Tennessee’s program has since advanced. That’s partially because the relief of avoiding dire football consequences has a significant hand in the joy of those moments. College football has changed in that way, like it or not.

As for the Vols, they’re just fine. They can lose one more game for sure and go 2-for-2 in qualifying in the 12-team era. The team that took the field Saturday got torched on defense, yes, but it also was missing both of its starting corners — Jermod McCoy, a likely first-rounder, and Rickey Gibson III, a guy I expect to see on Sundays — and primary trench stuffer Jaxson Moi.

A trip to Alabama, I think, I guess, is the one remaining game in which I’d lean toward a defeat based on the team that took the field Saturday and what it can realistically become.

“Man, what didn’t we learn?” Aguilar said. “We stuck together. It was a tough loss to a great team, but we’ve just got to finish a little more and dig a little deeper.”

The main thing they learned: Aguilar is a dude. Zero-star recruit, seventh-year senior, community-college backup, interception-prone passer at Appalachian State in 2024, UCLA castaway after Nico Iamaleava left the Vols in the spring. And now here he is providing some of the best QB play so far this season for a team that can contend, while Iamaleava and the Bruins leave no question which Power 4 team is worst.

This saga should be a reminder of how much the supporting cast matters to a quarterback. Iamaleava has no chance with the 2025 Bruins. Tennessee fits Aguilar and has helped him flourish. Still, the poise, the touch on the deep ball, the ability to evade rush and keep his eyes downfield — that’s all him.

“He’s just a baller,” Brazzell said of Aguilar, and on Saturday, that made him one heck of an air freshener.

(Photo of Joey Aguilar: Alan Poizner / Imagn Images)