Steve Spurrier welcomed Lane Kiffin, as the head coach of Tennessee, in his own way. Steve questioned whether Kiffin contacted recruits before he had passed the NCAA test? Welcome Mr. Kiffin. He now knows for sure that he not only has the challenge of making a formidable team out of the Gamecocks but also to tackle the verbal bouts with Spurrier.

Spurrier, South Carolina coach has a long history of making jokes at former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer. This time his target was Kiffin, whose first match as the head coach is still months away. He gave him an early taste of what he is expected to get time and again, coaching the Gamecocks.

Kiffin was asked Saturday during his second public appearance as Tennessee coach if he was worried about "ruffling a few feathers" in the Southeastern Conference coaching community". And he replied: "I'm not concerned about that. If Steve's concerned about my test, I got 39 out of 40. I'd like to see what he got."

Kiffin punched Spurrier back in his face and gave Spurrier a dose of his own medicine. The matters are expected to heat up even more when the two rivals start competing against each other. Kiffin said earlier this month that he took the NCAA recruiting test several days before he was introduced as coach and started contacting the recruits from the first morning he was allowed to.

The NCAA requires coaches to take a recruiting certification test before they're allowed to contact recruits.

Phillip Fulmer was replaced by Kiffin, as the head coach of the Volunteers. Philip ended his 17-season tenure with a win over Kentucky. Kiffin is Volunteers' 21st coach but only the third in the last 32 years. This was for the first time in the history of University of Tennessee that a football coach was selected after a national search.

Being recruited by Tennessee, Kiffin, becomes the youngest coach to lead a major program in the Bowl Subdivision. But he surely is well versed with the coaching tactics; he has been around the football field ever since he was born. He was the former coach of NFL's Oakland Raiders. In his first year as head coach in 2007, the Silver and Black went 4-12 and ranked sixth in the NFL in rushing, averaging 130.4 yards per game. The Raiders offense also ranked sixth in the AFC in average rushing yards per attempt (4.1).He is famous for nurturing talent; he produced a 1,000-yard rusher in Justin Fargas (1,009). In addition during 2007, Zach Miller led all rookie tight ends in receptions and ranked fourth in the NFL among all first-year pass catchers with 44. Punter Shane Lechler led the NFL in punting en route to a Pro Bowl spot. Kiffin is on way to fill the shoes of his father, Monte Kiffin, who was the NFL defensive coordinator.

Spurrier once famously quipped "you can't spell Citrus without UT" as a way of mocking Tennessee's appearances in the Citrus Bowl after regularly losing to his Florida teams. We will have to wait to see how Kiffin will react to such remarks from his South Carolina counter part.