To put Tennessee’s drought of national and SEC championships in perspective, Tee Martin is now 30 years old.

The unshakable quarterback who improbably guided Tennessee to a perfect season in 1998 as a first-year, dual-threat starter is proving to be as versatile in his post-football career as he was on the field.

Martin hosts his own show, “Hot Tee and Touchdowns,” every Friday morning on 680 The Fan in Atlanta and analyzes college football on the CSS show “Talkin’ Football” on Thursday and Sunday nights. He’s a high school offensive coordinator, a quarterbacks coach for Nike football training camps and the owner of Playmakers Sports. He ran his own camp last summer.

“I felt dual-threat quarterbacks were being under-served in terms of coaches getting out there and having a script and being able to coach this type of player,” said Martin, who lives in Atlanta and will attend the Tennessee-Georgia game Saturday. “I want to identify these kids who are so athletic and so fast and help them out with the passing game.”

The next starting quarterbacks at several SEC schools will arrive with the influence of Martin, who was a little bit ahead of his time with his ability to run and throw. Martin didn’t run many plays out of the spread formation at Tennessee, but his pupils will likely get a chance.

Raymond Cotton, who has committed to Auburn, attended Martin’s Atlanta camp last summer. Martin also has worked with future Georgia quarterbacks Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger.

“Helping young people is my passion,” Martin said. “That’s my love. I loved the college experience, hanging in the dorms. The NFL was a more corporate, business-type atmosphere. I didn’t play the game for that.”

Martin played for three NFL teams and had stints in NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League. Martin, who now shares the NCAA record of 23 straight completions with Aaron Rodgers (who did it in 2004 with Cal), is married to singer Toya Rodriguez and has one child.

But he’ll always be remembered for the 1998 season, when Peyton Manning’s virtually unknown backup quarterback led Tennessee to a 13-0 record. He has a street named after him on Tennessee’s campus.

“One of the things I’ll always remember about that season,” said Jeff Hall, a kicker and captain on the 1998 team, “was how Tee Martin kept getting better and better and better as the season went on.”

Comments