Tee Martin in 1998

#26
#26
Smokievol said:
I get enough stirring of the racism pot from the press and dimocrats, any facts to back your assumption? Not just your feelings.
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If you talk to folks in areas surrounding Knoxville and casually bring up Tee as the championship winning QB, the response from many of them will say it all. No i do not have recordings of those conversations but if you live in TN, you know it.
 
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#27
#27
BigOrangePhoenix said:
Despite being a Junior, did he have a hard time grasping the offense early on? They played 'close to the vest' against Florida, and Tee was awful. He was inconsistent against Syracuse, but still made big time plays. He was awful against Auburn but seemed to hit his stride against UGA.

Obviously, I am not complaining, but why was Tennessee conservative with a Quarterback that had been in the system for two seasons plus a fall camp? Need refreshed.
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I watched every game in 1998, and frequently revisit all the games. Tee Martin was an excellent leader. He had a wonderful attitide. He had great intangibles. He did not make poor decisions. He played his best under pressure. He is probably the best runner at QB we ever had. However, he was inconsistent with his accuracy. He would often under or overthrow his receivers. He was 9-26 against Syracuse, 7-20 against UF, 5-14 against Auburn, and 10-27 against Arkansas (feel free to check these, because this is from memory, and I believe they are correct).

The coaching staff knew they had an amazing run-blocking offensive line, elite talents in Jamal Lewis, Shawn Bryson, and the Travis boys, and a great runner at QB. They ran the ball a lot, especially early in the season. When Jamal got injured, they started to throw more, (except in the Bama game, where I think they only threw 2 passes in the entire 2nd half, which is just unthinkable today). I believe the coaches played to their strengths extremely well in 1998. Running the ball was definitely the team’s biggest strength that year.
 
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#28
#28
ZZ13 said:
Yup. I have my theories….

Street naming after athletes is a can of worms. Where do you start and stop. So many athletes. If I were in charge they’d all go back to their previous names and I’d just create a wall of fame somewhere with their pictures on it.
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It made sense for Peyton imo. He was one of the best to ever play at TN and one of the best qb’s to ever play the game college or pro. The rest is just placating
 
#30
#30
volmandu said:
We all know what that reason is for many.
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Wow…this went off the rails quickly. Poster asked a reasonable question (which LWS answered):

“Obviously, I am not complaining, but why was Tennessee conservative with a Quarterback that had been in the system for two seasons plus a fall camp? Need refreshed.”

Next thing you know we get a dissertation on why Tee was one of the best and people look down their nose at him - which is 100% irrelevant to the poster’s question.

Then you jump in and insinuate racism.

Seems logical!!
 
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#32
#32
PlanetVolunteer said:
Either it took him a while to get comfy or Philips conservative approach.
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Yeah, it must have been Fulmer's conservative approach. For the 6 year period 1995-2000, the Vols finished 1st or 2nd in scoring/game in the SEC. Fulmer must have really hamstrung the Vols offense.
 
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#35
#35
hog88 said:
TM deserves all the respect and praise any NC winning QB should get. He did his job, did it well and won.
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Absolutely . . . He was the right guy at the right time and deserves the credit. At the same time . . . he didn't play the position at an elite level, but both things can be true.
 
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#36
#36
Offenses in Football were far more conservative at that time than they are today as well. It wasn't just a Fulmer thing. Spurrier's offense would be pretty standard today and it was considered extremely novel for the era. Part of the reason defenses dominated the game so much.

I hate to say it but most modern power teams like Alabama, Georgia, or Michigan would trash many of the national champions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Even 2022 Tennessee would likely beat 1998 Tennessee.
 
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#37
#37
KoachKrab127 said:
I watched every game in 1998, and frequently revisit all the games. Tee Martin was an excellent leader. He had a wonderful attitide. He had great intangibles. He did not make poor decisions. He played his best under pressure. He is probably the best runner at QB we ever had. However, he was inconsistent with his accuracy. He would often under or overthrow his receivers. He was 9-26 against Syracuse, 7-20 against UF, 5-14 against Auburn, and 10-27 against Arkansas (feel free to check these, because this is from memory, and I believe they are correct).

The coaching staff knew they had an amazing run-blocking offensive line, elite talents in Jamal Lewis, Shawn Bryson, and the Travis boys, and a great runner at QB. They ran the ball a lot, especially early in the season. When Jamal got injured, they started to throw more, (except in the Bama game, where I think they only threw 2 passes in the entire 2nd half, which is just unthinkable today). I believe the coaches played to their strengths extremely well in 1998. Running the ball was definitely the team’s biggest strength that year.
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Yep. Spot on. (Well except I will disagree with ...the best runner at QB part.) Cutcliffe doing his best to 'hide' our defects and issues on the offensive side of the ball. Which I think he accomplished very nicely. If you know we are going to run and you can't stop us ... Cut would run till you figured out how and then change to something else you could not stop. Cut, for his time, was one of the better OCs in the business.
 
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#38
#38
DC_Vol said:
Wow…this went off the rails quickly. Poster asked a reasonable question (which LWS answered):

“Obviously, I am not complaining, but why was Tennessee conservative with a Quarterback that had been in the system for two seasons plus a fall camp? Need refreshed.”

Next thing you know we get a dissertation on why Tee was one of the best and people look down their nose at him - which is 100% irrelevant to the poster’s question.

Then you jump in and insinuate racism.

Seems logical!!
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The problem is that any discussion that attempts to answer the question must include an acknowledgement that we entered that season having lost a lot of experience at the QB position. One of the greatest QBs in the history of cfb was going to be replaced by a first-time starter. Whoever that was, he was going to be compared to Peyton. It was inevitable.

Tee rose to the occasion and cemented his status as an all-time Vol legend. It's a great story.
 
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#39
#39
Cut's O had Jamal Lewis (until he was hurt), Travis Henry, Shawn Bryson, Travis Stevens, Chad Clifton, Mercedes Hamilton, Spencer Riley, Cosey Coleman, and Jarvis Reado. Tee made some big runs when needed. They rushed for 2500 yards in a league that was all about possession football, power running, and controlling the clock.

They really didn't need to throw the ball all over the place. Spurrier was the only exception, but UT's D stifled that with Big Al and Co putting so much pressure on them, they couldn't outscore them.
 
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#40
#40
amstelman said:
I recall that T held the record for completions in a row for a while. However, the passes were rarely over 12 yards. Conservative for sure.

Who remembers which game that was? (Not me)
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Yeah, he certainly got more comfortable throughout the season and as a result, became more accurate. I truly believe the Georgia game was his breakthrough. He hit a a couple of timely, big plays in the second half that sealed the game. Great, on time passes that hammered nails in the coffin. By the time we rolled into Columbia late in the season, he was oozing confidence

Edit: The SC game was 23 straight completions
 
#41
#41
BigOrangePhoenix said:
Despite being a Junior, did he have a hard time grasping the offense early on? They played 'close to the vest' against Florida, and Tee was awful. He was inconsistent against Syracuse, but still made big time plays. He was awful against Auburn but seemed to hit his stride against UGA.

Obviously, I am not complaining, but why was Tennessee conservative with a Quarterback that had been in the system for two seasons plus a fall camp? Need refreshed.
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He had very limited in game experience. Practice isn’t anything like games. Plus, the 1998 team had a great defense.
 
#42
#42
Bloodrunsorange27 said:
They were ‘conservative” because the offense was more balanced. Tee was off and on passing but we had a really good running game and an incredible defense.
Tee didn’t deliver a natl championship. Tee was a QB on a team that delivered it. It was a team achievement and no one player delivered it.
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We were loaded at tailback, and before the injury, Jamal was the best offensive player on the team and a very legit Heisman candidate. It made sense to feed him the rock.

Plus, if you look at Fulmer’s history, he did that with almost all first time QBs at that time. Peyton rarely threw the ball downfield his first season (but he was a freshman).

Tee was a very good college QB. He probably gets undervalued because he followed one of the all time greats. Peyton seemed to throw for 300 yards in his sleep.
 
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#43
#43
EZE said:
We were loaded at tailback, and before the injury, Jamal was the best offensive player on the team and a very legit Heisman candidate. It made sense to feed him the rock.

Plus, if you look at Fulmer’s history, he did that with almost all first time QBs at that time. Peyton rarely threw the ball downfield his first season (but he was a freshman).

Tee was a very good college QB. He probably gets undervalued because he followed one of the all time greats. Peyton seemed to throw for 300 yards in his sleep.
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Agreed. Jamal looked like a Heisman winner those first few games intil he he hurt his knee at Auburn.
We went into GA with Travis Henry and Travis Stephen’s both having to step up at RB and they played phenomenal.
Another part of how many players had a huge impact that year
 
#45
#45
VFL-82-JP said:
You mean racism, of course.

And I'm sure there's an element of that working in the fan base against Tee, but I think it's not the biggest element. Consider: we as a group LOVE the Artful Dodger, Condredge Holloway; we collectively CHERISH Tony Robinson; we ADORE Al Wilson, and Eric Berry, and Heath Schuler, and Reggie, and Raynoch, and Donte, and Peerless, and a ton of other lads who wore orange with skin some color other than white.

We are not, collectively, a racist body of fans. I've always been proud of us for that. I hate that there are any racists among us, one is too many, but there aren't a lot.

Which makes the widespread apathy for Tee all the more mysterious.

Go Vols!
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Heath Shuler wasn't white?
 
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#47
#47
Bloodrunsorange27 said:
Agreed. Jamal looked like a Heisman winner those first few games intil he he hurt his knee at Auburn.
We went into GA with Travis Henry and Travis Stephen’s both having to step up at RB and they played phenomenal.
Another part of how many players had a huge impact that year
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That team was loaded. The next year’s team was even more loaded, and underachieved.
 
#48
#48
BigOrangePhoenix said:
Despite being a Junior, did he have a hard time grasping the offense early on? They played 'close to the vest' against Florida, and Tee was awful. He was inconsistent against Syracuse, but still made big time plays. He was awful against Auburn but seemed to hit his stride against UGA.

Obviously, I am not complaining, but why was Tennessee conservative with a Quarterback that had been in the system for two seasons plus a fall camp? Need refreshed.
Click to expand...

We were conservative with where we threw the ball. Very rarely did we attack down the field between the hash marks as they didn’t trust Tee. He threw a really bad pick against FSU in the championship game over the middle. To be hobest the offense was kinda blah for most of the season.
 
#49
#49
EZE said:
We were loaded at tailback, and before the injury, Jamal was the best offensive player on the team and a very legit Heisman candidate. It made sense to feed him the rock.

Plus, if you look at Fulmer’s history, he did that with almost all first time QBs at that time. Peyton rarely threw the ball downfield his first season (but he was a freshman).

Tee was a very good college QB. He probably gets undervalued because he followed one of the all time greats. Peyton seemed to throw for 300 yards in his sleep.
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There might be some argument about being "undervalued" but the overarching issue with Tee at the QB position in '98 will always be set against the following:

UT was the #17 rushing offense in the nation.
UT was the #17 total defense in the nation. (#6 in rushing and #9 in scoring defense)
UT was the #73 passing offense in the nation.

It's senseless (and unfair) to ignore Tee's role but '98 UT was far and away more reliant on running the ball and defense than the passing game.
 
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#50
#50
EZE said:
That team was loaded. The next year’s team was even more loaded, and underachieved.
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I think there were 8-10 Pro bowlers and 20 multi year NFL starters on that team. How we were within whisker of losing 5 games that year is kinda crazy.
 
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