Kirby Smart didn’t have much interest in discussing Georgia’s win over Tennessee on Monday, but Vols’ coach Jeremy Pruitt did.

Pruitt made a quarterback change Saturday night, and there’s optimism on Rocky Top once again after freshman Brian Maurer threw two touchdown passes in the 43-14 loss.

Georgia scored 33 unanswered points, shutting out Tennessee the final 44 minutes to run its record to 5-0.

But many of the Vols’ (1-4) fans have said their team played its best game of the season against the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs.

“When you review the game from Saturday, there’s lots of positives we can take out of the game on both sides of the ball,” Pruitt said, according to the UT transcript, “and there’s lots of things we can learn as a football team to continue to grow and improve.”

Pruitt said Tennessee was playing at a faster speed against the Bulldogs.

“I felt like we had guys that played faster than they’ve played before, and you can kind of see that at this day and time with GPS and things,” Pruitt said. “Offensively, we moved the ball in the first half, created some explosive plays, and had some success running the football. We didn’t finish the first half there. We missed a field goal.

“Second half, we probably missed some plays there that we wish we had back, but we’ve got to fix that and put some drives together.”

Pruitt said Georgia  “created some tight windows and covers, and made some throws and catches,” in the Bulldogs’ third straight win in the series.

Pruitt, UGA’s defensive coordinator 2014-2015, said he believes his Tennessee staff is coaching “identical” to Georgia’s, but the Vols’ execution is lacking.

“You probably could have taken a video and went into our locker room and went into Georgia’s locker room, and the operations of the coaching staffs are probably identical when it comes to coaching the players,” Pruitt said, “because we coach every play all the way through the game.”

Smart was asked one question about Tennessee involving facing his former offensive coordinator Jim Chaney at his Monday press conference.

“Yeah, I’m worried about South Carolina right now, I’ve forgotten about that totally,” Smart said. “They did a really good job. Got a lot of respect for those guys and how hard their kids played, but I’m worried about South Carolina right now.”

The Bulldogs play host to the Gamecocks (2-3) at noon on Saturday at Sanford Stadium.

DawgNation Georgia-South Carolina Week

Kirby Smart updates Bulldogs’ injury situation

Rodrigo Blankenship earns SEC Special Teams Player of the Week

South Carolina’s Will Muschamp previews Georgia football

3 Takeaways entering South Carolina week, newfound swagger

Georgia Recap: How Bulldogs beat Tennessee 43-14

Georgia ranks No. 3 in AP poll after win over Vols

UGA-Kentucky game-time announcement on hold