Ed Orgeron offers his Tennessee-Florida prediction — and favorite memory from The Swamp

Ed Orgeron looks back fondly on eating fried chicken with former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors in 2009, when Orgeron was an assistant for the Vols under Lane Kiffin. But his favorite memory of Florida and Tennessee as a longtime SEC coach was beating the Gators 17-16 as a first-year LSU coach in 2017.

Orgeron reflected on his Tennessee-Florida memories Thursday before making his prediction for the game on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Spoiler alert: Orgeron is taking No. 9 Tennessee (2-) over Florida on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).

"My greatest memory is in the Swamp," Orgeron said Thursday in a mock press conference, reliving his first win over the Gators at LSU. "Hot, Saturday afternoon CBS game. We had just lost to Troy. The pressure's on. We've got to win the football game, or the word is I'm not making the plane on the way back.

"The score is tied going into the fourth quarter, and it's the first time they're playing Tom Petty, and I remember standing on that grass and they're screaming, 'hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out.' And I'm saying, 'bring it on.' And I look to my trainers, and I say, we're gonna win the football game.'"

LSU and Orgeron took a 17-3 lead early in the fourth quarter, but after back-to-back touchdowns by the Gators, the score was 17-16 with under two minutes left. Florida was set to tie the game on a PAT, but its kicker to clear the Tigers' path to victory.

"And I got to get on the plane, man," Orgeron said.

Orgeron was coach at LSU from 2016-21, winning the SEC Championship and national championship in 2019. He spent one season at Tennessee in 2009 before joining Kiffin at Southern Cal in one of the infamous moments in UT history.

Orgeron also coached at Ole Miss in 2005-07.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Ed Orgeron makes Tennessee-Florida prediction: Here's who he picked