KNOXVILLE - Tee Martin won a national championship as a quarterback for the University of Tennessee.
He spent portions of four seasons on NFL rosters.
He built his coaching reputation in the college ranks as a strong recruiter and a developer of talent during stops as an assistant at Kentucky and Southern California.
Nothing, though, prepared him for his first day back in Knoxville as a coach.
"It was surreal," Martin said after the Volunteers practiced Tuesday. "There was nervousness there, just because it's the first time coming back in this role. You've got to remember, the last time I lived here and spent every day here, I was 21 years old. And now you return with four kids, a wife and a dog. You're a totally different person. But, to see people who were here when I was a young man and helped me grow to be the man that I am today, they were still around giving me hugs and high-fives. That gave me a sense of being back at home again.
"Then there's embracing the new. It is a better place than it was when we left it. You just look around and you can tell. The buildings are nice and things of that nature, and it's great having Coach (Phillip) Fulmer back (as athletic director). It really hit me when we were in an academic meeting and I was paying attention to them talk, and I look to my left and Coach is sitting right there. It's a little different than being a player, but it was surreal. It took me a couple of weeks to actually get used to being back here as a coach in a different role."
Martin's title is assistant coach and passing game coordinator, and he's working with receivers, a position group with a mix of experience, talent and youth this spring at Tennessee. The group includes four seniors, led by Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings. It has proven talent, including junior Josh Palmer, and potential in early enrollee Ramel Keyton.
Martin's knack for developing receivers, with a combined 11 NFL draft selections at USC and Kentucky, is part of the reason Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt hired him this past winter. It's not the only reason, though.
"First of all, he won a national championship here," Pruitt said Tuesday. "I have recruited against Tee for a very long time, and he is first class. He does it the right way. He builds great relationships with the players and family. I have coached against him. Just watching from afar, the offenses that he has been in charge of has been very successful.
"If you look at the guys that he particularly coaches, the wide receivers he had at USC, there have been lots of guys that have been very productive. They were skilled but had really good technique and played the right way."
For Martin, just being back in Knoxville was enough of an allure. He's glad to have an opportunity to help rebuild the program he saw to its pinnacle as the starting quarterback of the 1998 team that defeated Florida State 23-16 in the Fiesta Bowl to win the first BCS national championship.
"It hits me at different times," Martin said. "Really, just walking around the building and sitting in my office as a coach here. As a player, you kind of hang around and go check on your coaches and then go about your business. Over the years, I've come back for games and everything was happening over at the stadium. It had been a long time since I had been over in this building and had seen everything. When it finally kind of set in, it was coming in early in the morning, being here late at night, recruiting for the school that you played at and had so many great memories at.
"It kind of hits me at different times when I'm around the building or I'm on the phone with recruits. I'm really selling the place that I played at. It's not just a job for me, it means more to me since I've done it here at this place and had the opportunity to come back and get it back to what I know it can be. It's been a different feeling for me, because I've been a lot of places that I've liked when I was there coaching, but nothing is like coming back home."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.