GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The stadium consists of 85,000 metal seats that aren't particularly comfortable. It surrounds 100 yards of football field that isn't much different from any other.

	The Swamp has become a place teams fear to visit since Steve Spurrier stepped in at Florida.

So what makes The Swamp The Swamp?

Most likely, it's the team that plays there.

No. 4 Florida plays No. 2 Tennessee on Saturday, trying to protect its 29-game winning streak at the stadium that got its nickname a few years after Steve Spurrier arrived as coach.

Not so coincidentally, that is the period during which the Gators transformed themselves into a national power. And that is what makes the mystique of The Swamp pretty easy to figure, says Terry Bowden, whose 1994 Auburn Tigers were the last visitor to win at Florida Field.

"Every SEC coach will tell you, it's no different from the stadium at LSU, Auburn, Georgia or Alabama," Bowden said. "If you go back to before Spurrier was there and when Florida wasn't winning as much, there wasn't much mystique there. Then they started winning. And it's pretty simple. Winning creates a home-field advantage."

Since Spurrier arrived in 1990, the Gators are 55-2 at Florida Field. Auburn and Florida State are the only teams to win there this decade.

The Gators believe there is something extra about The Swamp, which got its name thanks to a comment Spurrier made after Florida defeated Florida State 14-9 in 1991.

"The Swamp is where the Gators live," Spurrier said, referring to what before had simply been known as Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

The legend grew from there.

"It's very different," said running back Robert Gillespie. "When we run out there, the noise the crowd makes is like nothing you've ever heard before. There's a sea of orange and blue. You can't really see one person. Everyone blends into each other.

"A feeling runs over your body. It doesn't matter who you're playing. Whether it's Tennessee or Appalachian State, you want to go out and play hard for the fans."

Tennessee has a streak of its own going -- a 14-game winning streak that included the SEC and national titles and the Volunteers' first victory over Florida in six years last season.

Quarterback Tee Martin will start his first game at Florida Field. He's taking the approach many players do when they come into one of the most intimidating venues in college football.

"The football field is the same width, the same length," Martin said. "The goalposts are the same. The colors in there might be a little different, but that's about all."

The Volunteers haven't won at Florida since 1971, when coach Phil Fulmer played offensive line. He's trying to take the mystique out of the place and clue his players in on the hard facts.

"It's a lot like our place in that it's tough to hear," Fulmer said. "But until they experience it, there's not much you can really tell them."

For that, several Florida players were more than willing to chime in.

"They're confident and they're supposed to come in with confidence," Gators linebacker Eugene McCaslin said of the Vols. "But confidence doesn't win ballgames. They've got to come into The Swamp and win a game, and that's not real easy. Not a lot of people have done it."

Like Tennessee, Bowden brought his team to Florida in 1994 riding a huge wave of success and emotion. Auburn had a 17-game winning streak at the time, and Bowden, now an analyst with ABC, was quickly drawing favorable comparisons to both Steve Spurrier and his own father.

The Tigers won that game 36-33 on a last-second field goal. The Florida fans filed out of their own stadium in silent shock. That's the last time The Swamp has been so quiet.

"After kickoff, you'll notice that Florida is about as loud as the rest of the stadiums in the SEC," Bowden said. "The biggest difference there is that in the last quarter, it's just as loud. Because the people are going to keep yelling when their team is winning or close every game."