COLUMBIA --- He grew up far away from the Southeastern Conference, but Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin still scanned the dial on Saturday, looking for Steve Spurrier swaggering down the sidelines.

He loved how those Florida teams in the 1990s came on the field looking like they were going to win, then usually crushed their opponents. And he liked the coach in his visor, so confident he could tweak his opponents with a devastatingly on-point joke.

"It's his personality, and it's how he walks on the sideline. It's how those great offenses and all those great receivers and quarterbacks. They had a confidence about them," Kiffin said Tuesday.

Now, Kiffin gets to take on the coach he watched so closely. Spurrier's Gamecocks head to Tennessee on Saturday in a game critical to the Vols' bowl hopes and South Carolina's goal of becoming a yearly SEC East contender.

The 34-year-old Tennessee coach stormed into the SEC, picking fights and speaking his mind since taking over in December.

Spurrier was the first SEC coach Kiffin took on. The South Carolina coach suggested Kiffin started recruiting before he passed a necessary test. Kiffin fired back that he passed the test online, missing just one question.

The Vols also hired away South Carolina quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator David Reaves, who is Kiffin's brother-in-law. Reaves immediately began calling some of the recruits he had secured for the Gamecocks.

Spurrier hasn't said much this week about the new kid on the SEC block.

"That's for all you media people to comment on that. I'm trying to worry about my own team here." Spurrier said.

Perhaps the 'ol ball coach said all he needed to at the spring meetings, when Kiffin complained that Spurrier didn't apologize for suggesting he cheated by starting to recruit early.

Spurrier caught the Tennessee coach waiting for an elevator, pointed at him, turned to several nearby reporters and told Kiffin he didn't accuse him of cheating. Kiffin mumbled as Spurrier kept talking. The elevator arrived and Spurrier's twang could still be heard as the doors shut.