Steve Spurrier’s Florida teams had Tennessee’s number during his tenure in Gainesville, going 8-4 against the Vols.

During Peyton Manning’s time at Tennessee, though, Spurrier really had his number, going 4-0 against one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of football.

The Head Ball Coach joined “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Monday and relived those rivalries with Tennessee during the Peyton Manning era. He said the Vols only ever lost to the Gators those years (via 247Sports):

“You know, sometimes teams get too up,” Spurrier said. “‘We’re going to get them this year,’ you know? Instead of just playing the game and just going and playing. I don’t know. The game — the first one in 1996 — they sort of talked all summer about how they were going to get the Gators this year, and I looked up in the second quarter and we were ahead 35-0. We messed around and Peyton threw for about 560-something yards that night. They scored with 10 seconds left. It ended up 35-29 … They had good teams. For some reason, we were about the only team they ever lost to.”

Spurrier’s mid-90s Florida teams had everyone’s number, though, so the Vols shouldn’t feel too bad.

Plus, they won the 1998 national championship. It’s going to take a long time to get the rivalry back to that level, but both squads have coaches that they think will lead them back to the promised land.