KNOXVILLE — It has been six years, but Saturday’s 41-0 home loss to Georgia felt like Nov. 26, 2011.

On that day Kentucky ended a 26-year losing streak to Tennessee, winning 10-7 with a wide receiver playing quarterback. Derek Dooley survived that loss, but not many more.

There have been other blowout losses outside the 41-0 shoutout during Butch Jones’ tenure on Rocky Top, but his latest was the most damaging and one that will be hard to survive.

After the first home shutout since 1994, one can wonder how much longer Jones can continue as “the caretaker of Tennessee football.”

Jones’ caretaker status has met its match as his players have taken on the mentality of their head coach.

Jones clearly doesn’t have a firm grasp of what’s happening, saying “we had a good week of preparation” after the loss to Georgia.

“I thought our kids were ready to play,” Jones said.

They were not.

The offense was ineffective. Quinten Dormady struggled again. And John Kelly can only do so much.

“I think it’s an accumulation effect,” Jones said of his offense. “When you have opportunities to make plays relatively early in the game, and you don’t, you lose those opportunities.”

Jones might have lost more than that Saturday.

His mishandling of the quarterback situation has reached crisis mode. After saying Jarrett Guarantano could provide a spark, Jones watched the Dormady-led offense smolder for nearly three full quarters.

The fifth-year Volunteer head coach said he was “very concerned” about his offense not creating rhythm early against Georgia. But Jones didn’t do anything about it.

“We never established any rhythm,” Jones said. “We did not establish any tempo. I don’t think we had any explosive plays. We have to up the tempo. We need explosive plays, and we need consistency when running the football.

“It was as bad of an offensive performance as I’ve ever been a part of, and it’s inexcusable.”

Commitment level was a topic of conversation all week after their lackluster effort against UMass. Nobody expected a similar lack of concern at home against an SEC rival.

The Vols look defeated.

Going forward, what is Jones’ message to his team to try and salvage the remaining seven games?

Jones said immediately after the Georgia loss that his team understands “that their performance was unacceptable” and “they don’t need to be told that again.”

Actually, they do. Over and over again.

Nobody has ever accused Jones of not caring. But he can’t care more than the players.

“The only thing you can do in life is when things go wrong and don’t go according to plan, you get back up and you go back to work the next day,” Jones said. “You have to be more driven than you’ve ever been, and it’s a check of everyone.

“There’s a lot of football left to be played, and we just have to work. That’s the only way I know how to do it. You can’t feel sorry for yourselves, no one is going to feel sorry for us, so it should not start with us. We have to be real with ourselves and look ourselves in the mirror. It’s gut-check time. We have to work to get better. That’s the only way you can do it.”

Patience is wearing thin, if not almost entirely gone. The Dooley-type losses can’t continue, or Tennessee soon will be searching for a new caretaker.