Will Rita's rampage affect Vols?

The Gulf Coast, deluged by Hurricane Katrina three weeks ago, is still in recovery mode as UT prepares for Saturday night's game in Baton Rouge, La.

Tennessee athletic department officials spent last week scrambling to make one-day travel arrangements to Louisiana and now Hurricane Rita has everyone on edge again.

UT athletic director Mike Hamilton already has been in contact with the SEC offices in Birmingham expressing his concern.

Caution and a lot of TVs tuned to the Weather Channel will be the norm as Rita cuts a course through Gulf of Mexico waters this week.

"I don't think it will amount to anything," Hamilton said on Tuesday. "But I've talked to the conference office and we've agreed to watch it."

The fact Tennessee is traveling to Baton Rouge on Saturday, the day Rita is projected to make landfall somewhere between Mexico and western Louisiana, just adds to the trepidation.

"It gets a little sticky with us traveling on game day," Hamilton said. "It's shifted a little farther west, which is good."

If postponement is an option, UT officials want to know at least by Thursday.

One thing they don't want to do is fly into an approaching hurricane.

"I am concerned about the weather that's apparently coming in," UT coach Phillip Fulmer said. "But again, that's not something we can do anything about today."

Tennessee linebacker Jason Mitchell, a native of Abbeville, La., doesn't think much will come of it.

He played through a few hurricane scares in his life, but admits the recent horrors of Katrina probably have everyone back home on edge.

"They won't cancel that game," he said. "There might be a lot of rain, but there won't be 80 or 90 mile per hour winds or anything. I played in high school games when it rained all day and it rained the whole game because a hurricane was in the Gulf.

"It might be kind of scary because of what happened with Katrina, but I really doubt they cancel it. How can LSU make up two games? They won't do that to that team."

LSU's first scheduled home game with North Texas on Sept. 3 was moved to Oct. 29.