No Peyton, No Problem.
If a T-shirt was going to be made about the 1998 Tennessee football team, the above slogan may have perfectly described the squad that went on to win the national championship one year after Peyton Manning left for the NFL. But who needs a T-Shirt when you have Tee Martin?
Jamal Lewis, the eventual Super Bowl Champion and single-season 2,000-yard NFL rusher, was a sophomore on that Tennessee team and was close to its starting quarterback, Martin.
"Tee was my mentor and helped bring me along," Lewis says. "He was like my big brother. I always knew he could play. He had a big arm, and he could use his legs to get out of tough situations. I came off a great freshman season and we had planned to rely more on the running game after Peyton left to help get Tee more comfortable."
When Manning was quarterbacking the team, both Lewis and one of the team's captains, kicker Jeff Hall, say that during his tenure, it always felt like everything was riding on his shoulders. After Manning, there was a palpable sense that everyone on the following year's team knew they'd have to do their part and stay loyal to each other to win.
