In his most recent column on GoVolsXtra (subscription required), Dave Hooker pointed out that losing a big game at home during a recruit’s official visit isn’t that big of a deal. The coaches can sell the Volunteer football program to a recruit after a big win by stressing the opportunity to play for a great team, and the coaches can sell the program after a loss by emphasizing to the recruit that the team needs him.

It is often reported that recruits are awed by the size of Neyland Stadium and the fact that it is almost always filled to capacity with enthusiastic, orange-clad fans. That’s one of the biggest reasons the Tennessee football program is tough for a recruit to resist.

But what happens when a visiting recruit looks up into those grand stands and sees the place peppered with empty seats? What happens when those in attendance are less than enthusiastic or worse, booing the home team? Such sights and sounds turn off recruits (or tip the scales to a competing university) and thereby make it much more difficult to lure blue-chippers to Knoxville.

There are apparently a lot of recruits taking their official visits to the University of Tennessee over the second half of the football season. Hooker observes that the two biggest games remaining on UT’s schedule — Alabama and Notre Dame — are away games. The only home games remaining for recruits to attend are South Carolina, Memphis, and Vanderbilt.

How will the home crowd respond if the Vols lose to either or both of Alabama and Notre Dame? If most fans choose to simply enjoy the game day atmosphere in Knoxville and Neyland Stadium, recruits will still be impressed.

But many purported Volunteer fans seem to be extraordinarily fickle and only enjoy the game day atmosphere if Tennessee wins. For this reason, another loss or two this season will likely result in sparse and restless home crowds that turn off visiting recruits.

Fans are largely responsible for the team’s recruiting successes or failures. Fickle fans are bad for the team and by their behavior and response to losses, they deprive themselves of the very thing they desire.

Less than a week until Football Time in Tennessee.The Knoxville News Sentinel’s GoVolsXtra site kicked off the season with a huge 14-page special section. The first page of The College Football Preview ’05 (large file, and registration is required) is classic Daniel Proctor: a full-page color cartoon made to look like the Candyland board game, except that instead of sugar plums and lollipops, the multi-colored, segmented road is decorated with gators, tigers, and leprechauns.Proctor’s Rocky Road to the Rose Bowl graphically portrays the Vols’ difficult road ahead. After the UAB “Free Turn” game (which really could be anything but a walk in the park), the Vols’ must escape the Gators in the Swamp (U. of Florida) and the Tigers in Death Valley (Louisiana State U.) on consecutive weeks.

Then they entertain Ole Miss at home and have a difficult game against the Georgia Bulldogs before having to travel south where they must survive the Crimson Tide.

And then Tennessee’s former (and current again?) nemesis Steve Spurrier brings his new team — the South Carolina Gamecocks — to Tennessee before the team travels to always dangerous South Bend, Indiana to take on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Round the corner to finish with Memphis and Vanderbilt at home and the Wildcats of Kentucky up north, and the Vols’ should end up in Atlanta and the SEC Championship. Win that, and they should be in the Rose Bowl and the National Championship.

A rocky, treacherous road to be sure, but if they can drain the Swamp, survive Death Valley, hold the Tide, best the Irish, and then take care of business at home against Georgia, South Carolina, and the others, they will have earned the right to play for the trophies.

Check out Proctor’s graphic. It encapsulates the entire season’s challenges, dangers — and fun — ahead.

Five days to Football Time in Tennessee.