KNOXVILLE - However much you think you love University of Tennessee football, it can't be much more than 10-year-old Steven Williams does.
Or would you have convinced your father to drive more than three hours from your home in Union, South Carolina, to get a hotel room near the UT campus on Saturday night so you could be the first person in line for Fan Day at 7:30 Sunday morning?
Especially when you knew that the Neyland Stadium gates wouldn't open until at least six hours after that on about as uncomfortably humid a day as the campus has seen all summer?
"He was second in line last year," said Steven's father, Daniel, who's been a Big Orange fan since the early 1990s. "We wanted to make sure he was first this year."
And you wonder why UT senior linebacker Daniel Bituli said of his final Fan Day: "We learn about the fans when we're being recruited. It's one reason why we come to Tennessee. Just the passion they all have for this program."
It could be argued that that passion hasn't been justly rewarded for more than a decade. The Volunteers haven't reached a single Southeastern Conference championship game as winners of the East since 2007. They haven't won the league since 1998, which was also their last national championship.
In the 11 seasons since 2007, the Vols and their fans have endured seven losing seasons, failed to win as many as 10 games a single time and suffered the first eight-loss season in school history when they couldn't win a single SEC game in 2017.
Yet that didn't stop 32-year-old Andy Bowser - who was no worse than 10th in line on Sunday - from predicting that this 2019 UT team "will go 11-1. We'll beat Georgia. We'll beat Florida, too. Our defense is going to be unbelievable. Just our pass rush alone. We almost sacked (Alabama quarterback) Tua (Tagovailoa) four times last year. We'll get him this year."
Asked why the Greeneville, Tennessee native was so confident, he replied "Savion Williams," referring to the 6-4, 304-pound junior college transfer at defensive tackle.
"There's a reason why they call him a quarterback's worst nightmare," said Bowser. "We might have the best defensive line in college football."
According to Bituli, the entire cast of Big Orange newcomers should be special. Especially freshman linebacker Henry To'o To'o, the highly regarded prep All-American from California.
"These freshmen are ego-less," Bituli said. "They're texting you, wanting to watch some film with you. Henry will text you at 11 o'clock at night. He's so eager to learn about football."
"Right now, you're just trying to build a team," Pruitt said before taking his spot between senior defensive standouts Bituli and Darrell Taylor in the official team photo. "All over the country it is hot somewhere. People get sore. These guys, or I guess this generation, is not used to the way it used to be. You used to practice three times a day and do it for two or three weeks. Now, we practice once a day. I think just instilling a little mental and physical toughness to them. The guys that have it always show up during fall camp and the ones that don't, it also shows up."
You get the sense that new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney's talents are already showing up. And why shouldn't they, given that he's officially the only undefeated head coach in UT history, even if it was only for a single game against Kentucky at the close of the 2012 season, when he was an interim HC after Derek Dooley's dismissal.
"Everybody has immense trust and immense respect for him," said quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. "Coach Chaney is definitely going to help the offense. He's changed the whole offense. It's quarterback driven. The game's coming a lot easier to me."
You can read too much into anything on the first week of August. Every team in the country is undefeated at this point. Of course, every team is winless, too. Yet these Vols not only appear to be in superb shape, they also seem to have a quiet confidence that this season is the first step toward once again becoming a serious contender in the SEC East and beyond.
"We're better offensively, we're better defensively," said Guarantano. "We're excited to get started."
It's hard to believe they're good enough to make a prophet of Bowser's 11-1 prediction. It's more understandable to embrace Daniel Williams' honest non-prediction of "I don't know. Hard to say."
But given the arrival of Savion "Quarterback's Worst Nightmare" Williams, and Chaney, and the experience and stability that comes with Pruitt entering his second season, it's certainly fair to embrace the prediction of the third fan to get in line on Sunday morning - 22-year-old Justin Wright of Maryville.
Said Wright, who arrived at Neyland at 8 a.m.: "I think they'll end up winning eight."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com