You can find Mount Everest poking through the clouds of Nepal at an altitude of 29,028 feet.

It's a climb where legends are made. If it were easy, it wouldn't be so dramatic.

Now you get an idea how Michael Frogg felt during his climb from a Kingston High School graduate to University of Tennessee walk-on football player to UT starter going into next week's opener at home against California.

Man, what a climb.

"It's a Mount Everest," Frogg said in his first comments since being named UT's starting center Wednesday. "When you get to the top you're overwhelmed with it. It's a big feat."

It's almost incredible.

Frogg wasn't exactly a hot commodity coming out of Roane County.

"I had no offers out of high school," Frogg said. "None."

Check that. He did have one.

"I offered him to walk on," UT coach Phillip Fulmer joked. "That's an offer.

"It's a great story. Somebody missed out, certainly some of the smaller schools missed out. It's just a fantastic story for what he has done here and it says a lot for him."

The 6-foot-4, 300-pound junior who was put on scholarship earlier this summer had a memorable journey.

"I thought it was tough, but I didn't think it was anything I couldn't overcome," he said. "I went to the Lord with it every day and if he wanted me to be here, that was my goal in life, to serve him."

Fulmer named Frogg the starter one day after Tennessee's final major scrimmage of fall camp. He edged out redshirt freshman Josh McNeil.

"Josh is going to play a lot," Frogg said. "We're all going to play a lot.

"The starting five really doesn't mean anything to me or him. As long as we go out there and compete and win, and get some good stuff done, that's all that matters to us."

Frogg's older brother, Sammy, was another walkon player at UT. Frogg's brother-in-law is former Vols' standout lineman Kevin Mays.

"He's a little bit nasty and you like that," Fulmer said of Frogg. "I'm not talking about being dirty, but he's a tough son of a gun."

Kind of like Mays, just not to that extreme just yet.

"Kevin Mays was maybe the best one I've coached," Fulmer said. "He was fabulous.

"Kevin would tell (the opposition), 'Hey, we're going to run it right here and there's not a dang thing you can do about it.' I don't think Michael's quite there yet."

But the climb is the fun part for Frogg.

"It's a great opportunity," he said. "We've got a great opportunity to go show some things to Cal.

"Really, I'm just honored to be able to start for a program like Tennessee."

Game Captains Named: Fulmer announced his five game captains for the season opener.

Defensive tackles Justin Harrell and Turk McBride, offensive lineman Arron Sears, receiver Jayson Swain and kicker James Wilhoit got the nod.

"They have been outstanding leaders for us and I'm looking forward to watching them walk out there and represent our team," Fulmer said. "They're really quality young men."

New Seating Plans: The UT athletic department announced a few changes in its plans for student and visitor seating this year.

The addition of the East side club seats meant 1,845 student seats and 871 visitor seats in sections AA-FF had to be moved.

"Our first responsibility is to our students," UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said in a release. "Having a solid student section provides a more encouraging environment for our team and allows our students to feel connected to the university."

Student seats formerly located in sections BB-FF rows 23-35 have been moved to sections I (rows 11-52), J (rows 1-34) and BB (rows 20-22).

Another 1,794 season ticket locations were moved from sections I and J to "comparable seats" in Y9, Y10 and Z11 which gives them a view of the jumbotron.

Visiting fan sections have been moved to sections MM and QQ.

"As we've traveled around to other SEC schools, we've noticed that many of our peer institutions have moved their visitor seats to the upper deck," Hamilton said. "We felt this was a good opportunity for us to make similar changes and give us an opportunity to improve seats for many of our fans."

Indoor Practice: The Vols geared up for today's annual kicking scrimmage by working indoors at the Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex on Friday.

"We had a good practice, good energy," Fulmer said. "We came inside for a change of pace and to get them out of the sun and start getting our legs back."