The parents of Tennessee freshman center Josh McNeil felt "blessed" as they watched the Vols' practice Thursday afternoon.

It had nothing to do with getting a glimpse of UT's game-day preparations for Saturday's opener against UAB.

It had everything to do with the thrill of being alive.

Terri and David McNeil rode out the fury of Hurricane Katrina from their Mississippi home, 98 miles from the coast.

"Never again," David said. "It was like being in a tornado for six hours.

"This storm was so huge. We thought we were going to be OK. It looked like it was going to hook to the west of New Orleans, but it didn't. It came right up our alley and the eye came right over us."

The devastation was massive.

"We just caught the brunt of everything," Terri said.

And they feel fortunate it wasn't worse.

"We've got a tree on our house, two on our shop, and every pine tree on our five acres is down," David said. "It took us about eight hours Tuesday morning to cut our way out of the driveway."

The McNeil's were anxious to escape and make it to Knoxville in time to see their son dress out as a true freshman in his first game as a Vol.

They were able to make contact with Josh briefly the night of the hurricane to tell him they were OK.

"We left (Wednesday) and stayed in Fort Payne, Ala.," David said. "That's when were able to get to a land-line and talk more with our kids."

A football game was the furthest thing from the McNeil's minds just a couple of days ago.

Now it will act as another escape of sorts. At least for a few hours, their minds will be on Josh and beating UAB instead of heartache back home in Mississippi.

"We're blessed," the parents said in unison. "We've got our home, we've got our health, and we made it."

Hurricane Relief: The UT athletic department announced it would donate $50,000 from concession sales at Saturday's games to the Red Cross relief efforts.

"It's times like these that you realize that there are things more important than college football," UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said in a release. "I challenge our fans to join us in our fundraising efforts by making a donation at Circle Park before the game or on their way out of the game."

The Red Cross will be taking donations at Circle Park from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Several former UT football players will be on hand to assist.

On Monday, the Vols will hold their second annual "OrangeAid" at West Town Mall.

Fans can get autographs of select UT players and coaches and "One Heartbeat" T-shirts will be on sale for $15. All proceeds go to the Red Cross.

Dress Roster: Tennessee released its dress roster for the opener.

Absent from the list were suspended players Tony McDaniel, Robert Ayers, Corey Campbell and Daniel Brooks.

A total of 13 duplicate numbers will be on the Tennessee side of the field at kickoff.

Knoxville-area walk-ons Dylan Dickey (No. 4), Anthony McAlister (No. 43) and Rick Daniels-Mullholland (No. 83) each will be dressed out for the game.

Williams Update: UT freshman Gerald Williams still hadn't been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, but UT coach Phillip Fulmer said the situation is looking better.

"I think we've made some progress," he said. "All the paper work (from Williams' high school) is finally there and there is a sense of urgency from the Clearinghouse to get it done before (today)."

Williams is listed on the UT dress roster (No. 57).