Tennessee has lost a program-record 11 consecutive SEC football games, but junior offensive lineman Drew Richmond insisted the Vols’ haven’t lost their appetite for winning.

“I mean, we hungry,” Richmond said before Tuesday’s practice at Haslam Field. “We want to win. Bad.

Richmond Tennessee has a “crazy” desire to turn around the program under first-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt and record the Vols’ first conference win since a 63-37 thumping of Missouri on Nov. 9, 2016 at Neyland Stadium.

The Vols have played just two of the eight SEC games on this season’s schedule, but finding a conference game where rebuilding Tennessee will be considered the favorite is a tough task. That certainly isn’t the case for Saturday’s at 21st-ranked Auburn. The Tigers opened as an 18.5-point favorite over the Vols, and they’re still favored by more than two touchdowns on practically every reputable sports book.

Regardless, Richmond said he and his teammates refused to be deterred from showing up to Anderson Training Center every day willing to put in the physical and mental work required to improve.

Put simply, Richmond said no one puts in this much work without wanting to win.

“Like, it’s just crazy how much we go through, what we go through, what we do on a daily basis,” he said. “We’re falling short, but I guess that’s the thing about life, is your resiliency, and how are you gonna come back. It’s just like, I mean, I don’t think we’ve got a team full of quitters. I just don’t think that.

Tennessee junior OL Drew Richmond

“Every weekend is an opportunity for us to just show, like, literally I feel like how good we are. We’ve just got put in the work.”

Richmond — a third-year starter who was the nation’s No. 56 overall prospect in the 2015 industry-generated 247Sports Composite — said he spends much of his time and attention focusing on Tennessee’s offensive line play, but that everyone in the program knew they needed to play better in order to stop losing and start winning.

As it relates specifically to the offensive line, though, Richmond said he could point to several mistakes he’s made this season that haven’t helped the cause.

“I mean, the margin of error, period, is just small in this game, I feel like,” he said. “Teams are too good. Competition level is too high. You can’t make a mistake, because the other team can quickly execute and make a big play out of something we did wrong, and that’s just one thing Coach Pruitt talks about that I genuinely understand, is that Tennessee can’t beat Tennessee, you know what I mean?

“He always asks us, ‘Did we do something, or was it the other team?’ And every time we reflect, it’s us. It’s us.

“So that’s just what I feel we’ve got to get better at, is just being who we are and continuing to work.”

Richmond said the Vols’ losing streak hasn’t changed the team’s spirit. Watching film of erratic or straight-up poor performances hasn’t gotten any less painful, and as long as it still hurts, it still matters.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” the Memphis native said. “You work so hard all week, and then to not get it done, it’s like, ‘Dang,’ you know what I mean? Absolutely, it hurts.”