The secret ingredient in any upset recipe is motivation. If the better team is always equally or more motivated, we wouldn’t still be talking about Appalachian State over Michigan — eight years after the fact.

So that’s the key question Saturday: Where is Georgia’s mind? Are the Bulldogs, a 3-point favorite at Tennessee, still reeling from a Final Four goal-killing home loss to Alabama? Or can Nick Chubb and Co., hit restart and realize that almost every preseason objective remains within reach?

No. 19 Georgia (4-1) at Tennessee (2-3), 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS — Whether it was the weather, the moment or the fact Alabama just doesn’t lose consecutive SEC games, Georgia was stuck in the muck last Saturday in Athens. Tennessee isn’t Alabama, obviously, but as our Murf Baldwin pointed out in a film study piece, the Vols do have a dangerous dual-threat in QB Joshua Dobbs, who threw for a season-high 232 yards last week after running for a season-high 136 yards in a one-point loss at Florida the previous week.

Georgia coach Mark Richt said part of the problem last week — in addition to Greyson Lambert’s ineffectiveness — was the fact the Bulldogs spent too much time trying to get outside. He promised a more physical style Saturday, which Chubb seemed to appreciate.

Play-calling will matter, but Georgia senior Malcolm Mitchell said motivation will trump all.

“The worst thing you can do is let something that happened the previous week affect you in the weeks to come,” Mitchell told reporters. ”That’s when your season goes downhill.”

That could be the case if the Bulldogs don’t keep Dobbs under wraps.