Benny Snell sees the lack of effort of some

"I know some of the older ones are extremely frustrated right now, including myself, because this is our last round and you do not want to finish like tonight," Conrad said. "We're going to have to pull together, have a meeting on Monday and talk to the team about what we need to do to make sure that does not happen again. But you can only talk a lot. We need to."

British coach Mark Stoops was largely responsible for the loss, as the team was clearly not sufficiently prepared to deliver the required performance.

And while Conrad and Snell both rejected the suggestion, the poor performance would be the result of a defeat win over Kentucky's loss to Georgia a week ago in a win-win match for SEC East's title, when asked when he thought some players were not winning the match. things seriously enough, Snell stopped to examine his words.

"It's a good question," he said. "I do not mean that it does not matter, but I get the impression that in the team, there are no guys who have that dog mentality, who want it, who are hungry, who are hungry and who want it. It was obvious that Tennessee wanted it more than Kentucky, which is why the result is what it was. We have to eliminate the guys who do not have this hunger. We do not have any more, we do not need you. "

See also: How Kentucky football handled the new redshirt rule this season

The suggestion that all players might not be on the same page comes as Kentucky faces its first pass of prolonged adversity this season.

By the end of October, Kentucky had set its first record of playoff victories in the SEC since 1977 and ranked ninth in the first standings committee rankings for college football. The loss to Georgia only lost two places to the Wildcats in 11th place. There were only three games left in which the Stoops team would have been favored against Tennessee, Middle Tennessee and Louisville.

A season of 10 wins was within sight, as well as the New Year's Cup which would have almost certainly accompanied it.

Kentucky lost for the first time this season. The offensive fights worsened as the previous game, which had already proven itself, has lost less than 100 yards in the past four games as its opponents do not respect the passing game.

The vaunted defenseman, ranked No. 1 in the country in points conceded per game before Georgia, has now recorded two nights in a row with Tennessee, ranked 120th in the country in yards per game early in the afternoon, overtaking the 400 Opponent of the SEC for the first time this season.

Previously: Where did the College Football Playoff Committee rank the UK after the defeat of Georgia?

"Obviously, I do not feel like we've done our best and it's about me," Stoops said. "I have to get them to play harder and play better."

Throughout the week, Stoops said his players were providing the kind of effort he was hoping for in practice after the defeat in Georgia, after which he told the team they could not let a defeat turn into two.

He was then surprised by the poor performance of the Neyland stadium.

Snell however did not mince his words when he was asked how he could say that some of his teammates were not playing with the same fire as at the start 7-1.

"As a leader, I can know when guys are going to action," he said. "Whether it's play or practice, I can spot it 100%. It's really all that matters. We must all be sold. We must all be sold in the plan for it to work. Hope we can do it. "

Analysis: Offensive troubles catch up with Kentucky football in Tennessee

While Stoops said he did not see the signs of the upcoming defeat in the trials, Snell said he saw some "get through" before the match, but not before it was "too late" .

It remains to be seen if it is too late to solve the problems in time to win an eighth regular season game for the first time since 1984 and rally to get a bowl of New Year.

"It's very frustrating," said Conrad. "I thought we were very prepared to play, but that showed we were not doing it. They were more hungry than us tonight for some reason. So we have to go back on Monday to understand why and try to solve this problem in the last two games. "