The U.T. campus was party central this afternoon as the Volunteers kicked off their first game of the Derek Dooley era.

Democratic candidate for Tennessee governor Mike McWherter made the rounds, visiting with fans, tailgaters, the U.T. College Democrats, and 7th Senate District candidate Randy Walker. He then made his way through the Vol Walk to visit with the U.T. Knoxville and U.T. Martin "We're all family" alumni party at Circle Park. The Vol Walk was huge. When Derek Dooley made his way through the crowd (sorry, no photos), it was like the second coming of Elvis.

Click the image above for more photos. (If you pay attention, you'll see Trace "Newscoma" Sharp and Squirrel Queen visiting with Blount Co. Democratic Party chairman Tony Webb.)

Because U.T. Martin is near Mike McWherter's home town of Jackson, we asked him who he was rooting for. "Whoever has the ball," he said. Campaign spokesman Shelby White said that for some reason they had not received their invitation to watch the game from Haslam's Pilot skybox.

UPDATE: TNJN has more on McWherter's visit...

Randy Walker was hanging out with the U.T. College Democrats. He told us he's excited about how the campaign is going but he is not taking anything for granted and is working hard. He said that he is getting widespread bipartisan support throughout the district, and the feedback is that voters in the 7th Senate District are looking for a more serious candidate who knows about business and job creation.

We also ran into Matt Padget, Mark Padgett's brother, who was making the rounds with Mike McWherter's entourage. Matt said we could quote him that Mark Padgett is a "likely candidate" for Mayor of Knoxville.

Matt said that Mark is being urged to run by the business community, because of Knoxville's net job loss over the past few years and the fact that we need to bring in more high-profile, private enterprise jobs. "Voters want a business manager, not a non-profit manager," he said. He also said voters will be impressed when they learn more about Mark's business background and his success building a county government software company that boasts Davidson County as one of its largest clients.

Politics aside, Volunteer Fans were out in force on the U.T. campus this afternoon. It looked like there were three times more people than would fit in Neyland Stadium, all out to support the Vols and Coach Dooley.