KNOXVILLE - The living legend of the University of Tennessee athletic department that is Gus Manning was waxing wise Monday regarding the UT-Florida football rivalry.
"(Former UF coach Steve) Spurrier really got it going," the 93-year-old Manning told a television film crew. "He's a Tennessee native and he was always taking digs at (Johnny) Majors and (Phillip) Fulmer. He was just being Steve Spurrier, but that really intensified the rivalry."
KNOXVILLE,TN - JUNE 17, 2015 - NIKE promo portrait in Knoxville, TN. There are those who might say a real rivalry requires two teams capable of generating similar performances. When you've lost 11 straight games to your so-called rival, as the Volunteers have to the Gators, it threatens to become a rivalry on one side only.
And one could certainly forgive the Gators for placing the Big Orange in roughly the same category as a Vanderbilt, which Florida has beaten in 23 of the last 24 meetings, though at least the Commodores won in 2013 in Gainesville. UT hasn't beaten the Gators anywhere since 2004, when Florida triumphed 30-28 in Neyland Stadium, which is where Saturday's 3:30 kickoff will be staged.
So no matter how much or little they're concerned about the Vols snapping that losing skid, the Gators have been talking a good game since April, when UF defensive back Jalen Tabor - who was forced to sit out last year's contest for refusing to take a drug test - tweeted something about making it "twelve years in a row this year."
In July, Florida linebacker Jarrad Davis said of the annual September game with the Vols: "It's always one of the funnest games of the year. Because we win."
This past Saturday saw the Gators' Marcel Harris proclaim that the UF players "come out every year and dominate."
To his credit, Tennessee coach Butch Jones is publicly keeping his emotions as flat as the top of his haircut.
"First of all, you shouldn't need (trash talk) to motivate you," he said. "We don't use that to get better. (Freshman) Baylen (Buchanan) doesn't need to know about 11 (straight) years."
Spurrier always knew, of course. He made sure everyone everywhere knew you couldn't spell C-I-T-R-U-S, as in Citrus Bowl - which is where so many of those losses to the Gators often landed the Vols - "without a U and T."
Not willing to let the Citrus taunt go, he later added, "I know why Peyton (Manning) came back for his senior year. He wanted to be a three-time star of the Citrus Bowl."
(In truth, despite losing to Spurrier's Gators all four years, Manning played in the Citrus Bowl only as a sophomore and junior before losing to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl as a senior.)
There was also the not-so-subtle shot Spurrier launched at former Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin's brief Knoxville stay when he said, "This will be the 14th time I've coached in Neyland Stadium. I've coached there more than some of their head coaches."
Then he fired this shot prior to his final season at South Carolina, after his Gamecocks had struggled to a 7-6 mark in 2014: "In Knoxville they're still doing cartwheels because they went 7-6 and won a bowl."
Of course, the Vols have not only won their last two bowls by a total of 56 points, but Jones was 2-0 against the Ol' Ball Coach before he retired midway through last season.
Yet Spurrier isn't coaching these Gators; Jim McElwain is. And while Stevie Superior had a 8-4 record against the Vols during his time at Florida, the last three UF coaches - Urban Meyer (6-0), Will Muschamp (4-0) and McElwain (1-0) - have yet to lose a game to Tennessee.
Perhaps that's why UT receiver Jason Croom said, "Florida has their own swagger."
To help combat that swagger, the Vols announced Monday that they were breaking out their "smokey gray" uniforms for Saturday, complete with smokey gray helmets, apparently hopeful that where there's the symbolism of smoke there's fire in the Big Orange belly.
To his credit, defensive back Micah Abernathy said that he and his teammates weren't counting on their clothes to make them winners, though they did come from 21 points down to beat Georgia last season while wearing the gray Nike threads that one website voted college football uniform of the year. Prior to that they were 0-2 while wearing the original Adidas smokey gray uni.
"We're more focused on the game than what we look like," Abernathy said.
That's at least one way to avoid being smoked by the Gators for a 12th straight season.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.