The 170 miles or so between Knoxville and Lexington aren't enough to fracture the relationship between quarterback Erik Ainge and the coach who helped bring him to Tennessee.

When former Vols offensive coordinator Randy Sanders returns to Neyland Stadium for Saturday's 12:30 p.m. kickoff (TV: WVLT) as Kentucky's quarterbacks coach, it will be 364 days since he last coached a game with the Vols.

It's been nearly a year since Sanders was on the sidelines in orange, but it's only been about a week since he last talked with his former quarterback.

"He's told me how proud he is and how he knew that we and I were going to have a year like this," Ainge said. "That meant a lot coming from him. He's one of the main reasons I'm even at this university. It's tough not to have feelings for the guy."

Those feelings go both ways.

Sanders said he has text messaged Ainge a few times on Saturdays to wish him luck and remind him to have fun.

The two speak mostly about their personal lives or to congratulate each other on their successes.

Detailed football conversations, they're not.

"None of our conversations have ever involved plays or techniques or anything like that," Sanders said Tuesday. "It's just been very personal conversations. I think the world of Erik; I think the world of (quarterback) Jonathan Crompton. And there's a number of players down there that I think a lot of and have called me at different times.

"Just because I left doesn't mean the end of a lot of friendships. Hopefully those are some relationships I'll be able to maintain into the future."

Sanders, a Morristown native who played quarterback for the Vols, resigned following UT's loss at home to South Carolina last season. He spent 17 years as a coach at Tennessee, eventually taking over for Vols offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe before the national championship game in 1998, after Cutcliffe left to become head coach at Ole Miss.

Sanders said he's spoken to Cutcliffe -- the man who replaced him -- a few times this year.

UT coach Phillip Fulmer has spoken to Sanders a few times, too.

"Randy is a very fine coach," Fulmer said. "That whole scenario was kind of like the perfect storm. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong."

At the time of Sanders' resignation, the Vols ranked 99th in total offense and averaged just 16 points a game.

Sanders bore the brunt of the criticism from fans. Some of that even trickled down to his family, which he cited as one of his reasons for leaving UT.

Ainge understood that then and now.

"Anytime someone's family -- a daughter's getting made fun of at school because, 'My dad said this about your dad,' type of thing," he said. "There's a lot more things in life more important than football, especially your family. He said it was the best thing for him. I love the guy and I trust him, so I said OK. You need to do what you need to do.

"It was harder for him, obviously, because he grew up orange and white. He's the one that recruited (former UT quarterback) Rick (Clausen) and I and Jonathan (Crompton) to come here. When he left, it was tough on them, too. But it was for the better."

For everyone involved, it seems.

Sanders has helped turn Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson into the SEC's leader in total offense and touchdown passes.

The Wildcats are 7-4 heading into Saturday's game and bowl eligible for the first time since the 1999 season.

Ainge is on the verge of setting a school record for completion percentage and hardly resembles the quarterback who struggled last season.

Cutcliffe has received much of the credit for that turnaround, but Ainge says those compliments aren't at the expense of Sanders.

"I'm not knocking Randy at all," he said. "It's just me saying how thankful I am that Coach Cutcliffe did it. It's not saying anything about Randy. I know he (Sanders) knows that.

"I've always had confidence in coach Sanders. I always loved him and how he coached. I couldn't be happier than I am right now with Coach Cutcliffe. But Coach Sanders is a good dude."