LostLettermen.com

Tennessee’s Tee Martin talks about his new job as the wide receivers coach at Kentucky, why he thought this was a great coaching opportunity and how weird it will be running into Neyland Stadium wearing Kentucky blue (run time is 4:36; transcript below the jump).

Lost Lettermen: This is Jim Weber from LostLettermen.com and I’m joined by Tennessee’s Tee Martin who is now the new wide receivers coach at Kentucky.

Tee, could you talk about what a whirlwind the past 24 hours have been for you?

Tee Martin: It’s pretty busy. On national signing I’m coaching out in New Mexico and then to accepting the job at Kentucky and now getting the family situated … meet the staff and meet the players and all that good stuff.

So it’s been pretty busy. I look forward to the change and am exited about living in Kentucky.

LL: Are you in Lexington right now?

TM: No I’m not.

LL: How does that go with moving your whole family to Lexington? What’s the time table there?

TM: Well it all depends on how quickly we can find a place. We’ll get started on that. My wife is working hard at that for me. I hit the ground running, pretty much. Once I get there we’ll get started and doing some different things.

So I won’t have much time to do it but my wife is taking care of most of that stuff and hopefully that won’t take too long.

LL: What are your thoughts on going to a hated SEC rival?

TM: It’s not a hated rival, it’s a down-the-street rival for Tennessee; about two hours apart. And for the most part when I was in college that was a big game for us. Kentucky and Vanderbilt was; they were two big games for Tennessee.

Now that they’re on the other side I feel like it’s an exciting time for football. Tennessee is going through changes, Kentucky’s new head coach in Joker Phillips who I’m excited about working with. He’s a friend of mine; I’ve known him for awhile.

And as for me getting the opportunity to work again with Randy Sanders, who was my offensive coordinator at Tennessee. So I’m excited about Kentucky football right now.

LL: A lot of people ask us, why would you accept a wide receivers coaching position when you spent your whole career coaching and playing quarterback?

TM: That’s the position I was offered to coach. I’ve been a quarterbacks coach pretty much everywhere I’ve been so I’ve had opportunity to work with receivers closely the last four years.

Knowing this game, when you’re moving up and you’re leaning when you’re young it’s good to have experienced coaches at different positions if you want to have a good opportunity to be a coordinator one day.

So I feel like it’s a good progression, a good opportunity to coach receivers at Kentucky. I know the system and what a better coach to learn from other than Joker Phillips who was one of the top receivers coaches in the country.

I’m excited for the opportunity to coach wide outs at Kentucky.

LL: What’s it like for you to reconnect with Randy Sanders, as you said your old offensive coordinator at Tennessee?

TM: I’m excited about it. We stayed in close contact since I left Tennessee. He’s one of the few coaches that I’ve spoke to several times a week since my playing days.

So I’m very comfortable with who he is, I know what kind of man he is. I know what kind of football coach he is; a family man. All that good stuff. My wife and his wife are very good friends.

I just look forward to reconnecting and being back in the SEC and having an opportunity to coach at Kentucky.

LL: Another question for you is; a lot of people are asking is the turbulence and the stuff going on at New Mexico, was that a part of your decision to go to Kentucky?

TM: No it wasn’t. It wasn’t. It was just an excellent opportunity to coach in the SEC. In New Mexico I believed in what we were able to do here. We had a great recruiting class here and all that good stuff.

So their coaching staff, I enjoy a lot of those guys on their coaching staff and they’ll continue to be some of my close friends.

For me, you couldn’t ask for a better situation in getting the opportunity to coach in the SEC. Being able to coach with someone who coached me and the opportunity to coach with someone I’ve been close friends with.

So it was perfect timing for me and pretty much a blessing.

LL: Last question for you; is it going to be kind of surreal for you to run out on the field at Tennessee in that Kentucky blue?

TM: It’s gonna feel different. I was telling my wife about that. It’s going to feel different. We’re going to Neyland Stadium and I have the blue on and I’m on the other sideline for the first time. I don’t think I’ve ever been on that sideline, even on a scrimmage.

It’s going to feel a little different but we have a job to do at Kentucky and we’re going to fight to beat Tennessee this year.

LL: Alright, thanks so much for your time Tee. Congratulations.

TM: No problem, thank you.

Got a question or comment? E-mail him here

All Tee Martin Interviews

Liked this story? Click here for Lost Lettermen’s RSS feed and receive all our great content

Click here to start contributing to our wiki database of over 150,000 former college athletes and help us answer the question, “Where Are They Now?”

Tweet This Post