ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski on UT-UF rivalry and his last 'College GameDay' in Knoxville

Any time Gene Wojciechowski gets the chance to visit Knoxville, he'll take it – even if it means a little embarrassment on national television.

On the ESPN reporter's last trip to Rocky Top for ESPN's "College GameDay" in 2016, they aired a photo from when he was a "really crappy walk-on" for Johnny Majors in the late '70s.

"Somehow, somebody dug up a photo of me from then, from a spring game – and I had hair back then, that's how long ago I was at Tennessee," Wojciechowski said. "I love coming here, any excuse to come here. I'm with it. They want to embarrass me tomorrow, I'm all for it if it means I can get up here on The Hill, walk around this gorgeous place and be a part of it."

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This weekend is the first time "GameDay" has made the trip to Knoxville in six seasons and Wojciechowski said it's good for the Florida-Tennessee rivalry to feel relevant again. After "GameDay" at Ayres Hall, No. 12 Tennessee (3-0) faces No. 22 Florida (2-1, 0-1 SEC) on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS).

"I hope bedlam," Wojciechowski said of what he expects from the game. "I hope (it's) how it used to be. What, it sold out in 10 minutes, is that right? That's the old days, that's how it should be. I'm a traditionalist, I liked it when Florida and Tennessee every year meant something."'

While "GameDay" host Rece Davis said there aren't any plans to embarrass Wojciechowski again tomorrow, Wojciechowski is doing a segment on the history of the Tennessee-Florida rivalry.

Wojciechowski graduated from UT in 1979 with a degree in communications and worked for the Denver Post, Dallas Morning News, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune before joining ESPN in 1992 as a college football reporter. But his start in journalism began with the UT Daily Beacon as a student.

"I should have gotten out of a business a long time ago," Wojciechowski joked. "I mean, do people read newspapers anymore? I hope so. But, you know how they always say college are the best years of your life? Man, best seven years of my life. It was great."

Though there aren't many similarities between college football atmospheres now and when he was briefly a Tennessee Vol "10,000 years ago," Wojciechowski said, there are similarities to the Majors era and coach Josh Heupel.

"In a lot of ways it goes back to the kind of way Josh is doing it now," Wojciechowski said. "Identify the problem and you fix it. So that's what I love about what's happening now."

Wojciechowski took note of the faction of Tennessee fans who expressed doubts over Heupel's hire, the people who rolled their eyes and questioned why UT didn't hire somebody better.

"It turns out, the better guy was right here," Wojciechowski said. "He's doing a great job. He was proven, he had done what he'd done at UCF, and so I'm happy for him. And he just goes about his business, doesn't play the social media thing. He doesn't have any fancy sayings or anything like that. Just a worker bee, and I like worker bees. That's what Tennessee needed."

With "GameDay" in town, an undefeated Vols football team and a checkerboard Neyland Stadium, Saturday has all the makings of a rivalry game for the books.

"Was it Heupel that said he thinks this will be the loudest stadium in America tomorrow? I'm not going to dispute that," Wojciechowski said. "Everything is set up for this to be a memorable day for Tennessee. So let's hope it is."

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: What happened when Gene Wojciechowski was at UT College GameDay in 2016