Well, maybe I picked the wrong year to follow the Vols on the road.

So far, the only things to have hendered my following have been losses to UCLA, Florida and Auburn. As well as the devastating hurricanes on the coast of Texas that sent gas prices sky rocketing. And not to mention economical woes that today's generation never dreamed they would face.

But the situation be as it may, I press on.

After two weeks of luxuriously walking only two blocks to Neyland Stadium for home games, a 335-mile trip to Auburn, Ala., was on the schedule. And I must admit, 335 miles is much more daunting when your favorite team is 1-2 and has no signs of an offense.

The drive wasn't bad, though, considering the Knoxville-like interstate construction for the majority of the trip.

By the time I had reached the Auburn exit, traffic was backed up roughly a mile on the shoulder of the road waiting to get off the interstate. And I say the Auburn exit because it seemed there was only one exit. Good thing I didn't have a poorly timed blink or I may have drove right by it.

Needless to say, Auburn seemed to be a university with a town built around it, and not the other way around.

The sprawling campus was your typical university in the deep south: oversized fraternity houses, oversized athletic facilities and oversized southern accents from the passers by. The usual Southeastern Conference priorities seemed to be in line as well. Football first, social life second and a free-for-all for third.

The campus was nothing compared to what we UT students call home. The Auburn campus was much more spread out and seemed much more modern with many buildings under construction. The architecture seemed to match from building to building as well, unlike a certain campus I have come to know.

The game day atmosphere was very similar, though. Much of the square mileage around the stadium was consumed with tailgating and corn hole. The Tiger fans seemed jovial and even welcoming, to the point where one Auburn fan passed me on the street and said, "Welcome to Auburn." I wasn't sure whether or not this was a sincere welcome, or his sarcastic greeting because he knew of the Volunteers pending defeat.

The Tiger Walk took place around two hours prior to kick-off and was very similar to the Vol Walk that precedes home games in Knoxville. The Tiger Walk took place through the middle of a street lined by trees with branches tunneling the road.

Auburn made their grand entrance in single file through temporarily placed steel gates while high-fiving the thousands of fans as their fight song was played in the distance. It felt like home, except flat (I guess they call it the plains for a reason).

Once inside the stadium I made my way up to the twenty-fourth row of the upper deck, keeping an eye out for a bloody nose considering the altitude of my seat.

The stadium had a somewhat intimidating feel with a packed student section roughly 90 minutes before kick off (something you would never see in Neyland) and the very close surrounding stands on all sides of the field. I got the feeling that a night game at Jordan-Hare Stadium wouldn't be the best experience if you were wearing the visiting team's colors.

One thing I have come to notice in my lifetime following the SEC is that it may have the best collection of bands in the entire country.

It seems in the South, the band is the pulse of the stadium. At the Rose Bowl, on the other hand, there was no pregame routine or even a performance at halftime. Just a band that sat on their hands the entire time.

Auburn's band was no different and the student section fed off their energy. Periodically throughout the game, the Auburn band would play the intro to Bon Jovi's hit "Livin On A Prayer" and the students would follow by singing the entire chorus (again, not something you would see at Neyland Stadium).

The game, as I have come accustomed to saying, was what it was. Two anemic offenses doing battle against two above average defenses. Squandered field position and costly turnovers helped Auburn to a 14-12 victory and left the Volunteer fans in attendance with the same expressionless look as we filed quietly out of the stadium.

The Auburn fans seemed to not be as hostile to the visitors after a win as in other places I have visited. Perhaps this is southern comfort being seen first hand, or possibly (and more likely) Auburn fans realized that in this day and age, beating Tennessee isn't much of an accomplishment.

"Oh, well," I said to myself. "It's back to the drawing board, again."

It seems I have chosen a very unsuccessful year to follow the Vols, or maybe I just happened to choose the year that brought change to the Tennessee football program.

I guess we'll see in about eight weeks.