A strange end to a strange week had an odd feel to it Friday afternoon at Haslam Field.

The Tennessee football team had what amounted to a Wednesday game-week practice.

UT coaches put the No. 10 Vols through a slightly abbreviated workout in preparation for Monday night's rescheduled showdown with No. 3 LSU. Kickoff is 7:30 on ESPN2.

The NCAA granted Tennessee four more hours of practice time -- above the usual 20-hours per week -- to compensate for the unusual circumstances of the weather-delayed game in Baton Rouge, La.

Hurricane Rita was projected to make landfall early Saturday morning on the Texas-Louisiana coast. Baton Rouge was under an inland tropical storm warning through today, according to the National Weather Service.

Fulmer and UT players were just glad they wouldn't be flying into the eye of the storm.

"It probably took the powers that be a little longer to get there than pleased me, but we weren't going to put our kids at risk," Fulmer said. "I'm glad there was a settlement that hopefully we can live with if the weather clears up well enough.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Monday's forecast for Baton Rouge still calls for a 90 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms.

"We're on kind of a 24-hour notice," Fulmer said of plans to travel on Monday. "But our mentality for our football team is we have to be ready to go on Monday morning to play on Monday night."

Tennessee has another practice scheduled for this afternoon and a walk-through set for Sunday afternoon.

The team will stay in a Knoxville hotel tonight and Sunday.

"Guys are looking at it like an opportunity to play Monday Night Football," cornerback Jason Allen said. "We're still going to have the same kind of preparation and get ready to play."

Injury Status: On the positive side of things for UT, the two-day delay could help a few banged up players move closer to recovery.

The biggest news was the return to the practice field of senior guard Cody Douglas. He suffered a banged up knee and ankle at Florida last week.

"It definitely gives me two extra days to get ready to help the team out," Douglas said.

Senior center Richie Gandy didn't practice, but Fulmer said there was a slight chance he could be back in time to contribute some against LSU.

"Richie's going to be better, maybe close to being back," Fulmer said. "Cody will be back it looks like."

Fulmer still plans to go with a starting offensive line of Arron Sears and Rob Smith at guard, Anthony Parker at center and Eric Young and Albert Toeaina at tackle.

"We'll go with where we are, but we'll have a couple people available," Fulmer said. "We were in a pretty precarious situation there with six or seven guys.

"That would help if they were able to get back."

Ainge Ready For Start: Sophomore quarterback Erik Ainge thinks the Vols are ready for whatever gets thrown at them on Monday.

"We've shown glimpses on drives," Ainge said of the offense. "We just need to put it all together. I think the offense is ready."

That includes being ready for possible wet conditions.

"You get all your shotgun stuff ready and we do wet ball drills," he said. "The quarterbacks and centers get over there and snap the balls to us with them soaking wet.

"It's an advantage for the receivers if the field is wet, muddy and slippery because they know where they're going to cut and the defense doesn't."

No Classes Tuesday: Tennessee players, returning to Knoxville around 4 a.m. Tuesday from Baton Rouge, have been told they won't be required to attend classes that day.

"The administration worked it out so Tuesday when we do get back we won't have classes," Fulmer said. "Neither will the band or the cheerleaders or anybody else going.

"We can get back and get some rest because it's really going to be a long three weeks (Florida, LSU and Ole Miss coming up next week). It's going to be a very important management situation."

LSU officials called off classes early on Friday and canceled all campus activities for today.

Tennessee, as expected, will be wearing Orange home jerseys on Monday. LSU traditionally prefers to wear white at home.