KNOXVILLE — Florida return specialist Brandon James had yet to play in a college game when he and the Gators traveled to Tennessee in 2006. But the 5-foot-7, 175-pound freshman reveled in the atmosphere as his team ran on the field at Neyland Stadium.

Florida coach Urban Meyer took notice.

“I jogged out of the tunnel behind him and it’s unbelievable what’s being said, and I look at this little nut and he starts doing the Gator chomp,” Meyer told the Gainesville Sun on Wednesday. “The kid was not intimidated by anything. So I grabbed him and said, ‘You’re the punt returner today.’ That’s when the decision was made.”

James makes his second Neyland appearance Saturday, this time ranked third on Florida’s list of career punt-return yards with 761. Twenty percent of that output has come against Tennessee.

In 2006 he returned four punts for 65 yards and an 89-yarder for a touchdown that was called back after an illegal-block penalty.

When the Volunteers traveled to the Swamp last year, James returned the first punt of the game for an 83-yard touchdown. He had 193 total yards on four kickoffs and three punt returns in the Gators’ 59-20 rout of Tennessee and led the Southeastern Conference in return average.

“No question that the kicking game will be a big part of this game and has been every year that we’ve played,” said UT coach Phillip Fulmer, who is 0-3 against Meyer. “We’re certainly very aware of Brandon James’ ability to return.”

Fulmer added that James is “probably as good of a returner as there is in this league or in the country.”

Neutralizing James begins with Chad Cunningham, Tennessee’s sophomore punter who will make his first SEC-game start Saturday.

“We’ve got a young man punting and getting him up to speed with exactly the way we want it to be,” Fulmer said. “(We’re) hoping that helped us in all those areas as it showed up against UAB. Of course, UAB is certainly not Florida.”

Tennessee may opt to avoid the return threat by kicking away from James, who scored on a 74-yard punt return in Florida’s season opener against Hawaii on Aug. 30.

“They have to pick their poison,” James told the Sun. “Kick it out of bounds and give us a short field to score on or kick it and take the risk of getting a big return on them.”

That’s a risk Fulmer may be willing to take.

“Our return game has been good as well this year,” he said. “That should be a very interesting matchup to watch.”