Tennessee offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian was a guest at the Knoxville Quarterback Club on Monday afternoon, where he reflected on his team’s 34-10 loss at No. 4 Oklahoma this past Saturday. Bajakian noted that while the Vol staff would never be happy with a loss, the evidence of growth as a football team and a football program was on full display Saturday night.

“We were right there, save two turnovers in the red zone,” he said. “We’re going to build on that, we’re going to make sure our guys know that we can’t make critical mistakes in critical situations like that.”

Bajakian praised his team for their effort to carry the fight through a full 60-minute game on Saturday, despite a huge deficit.

“They were locked in, encouraging each other,” he said. “At no point did they look up at the score and go ‘Man, we’re out of this.’ That’s progress, especially when you’re dealing with playing 20-something freshmen and half a team that hadn’t gone on the road yet.”

Bajakian also participated in a question-and-answer session, where he confirmed that he was on the headset with head coach Butch Jones during the game. A follow up question asked: What was Jones saying to the officials following a review of a fumble play in the first half?

“I think he said ‘Thanks for giving it your best effort,'” Bajakian quipped, drawing laughter and applause from the audience.

Tennessee has a bye week and will travel to Georgia on Sept. 27. The Bulldogs are 2-1– coming off a 38-35 loss to South Carolina– and will face Troy this weekend.