KNOXVILLE — With less than three weeks remaining until opening day for the Tennessee football team, the excitement continues to build and one thing is for certain on a team filled with question marks — especially on the offensive line.

The Volunteers have a coaching staff that truly relishes the opportunity to work together.

Tennessee, which went 5-7 last year and missed out on a bowl bid for the second consecutive season, opens the 2019 campaign at home against Georgia State, and perhaps no one will be more excited than Tee Martin.

Martin was hired during the offseason as UT’s assistant head coach after spending the last few seasons at the University of Southern California as Clay Helton’s offensive coordinator, but he’s glad to be coming home to a place where he won the 1998 national championship.

He will be excited when he returns to Neyland Stadium to compete in orange and white for the first time since the Vols won it all.

“I get fired up,” said Martin at the pre-camp media session.

Martin will also serve as Tennessee’s wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.

“You saw how fired up I was when I walked in here and had to calm down a little bit,” said Martin, who previously worked in the Southeastern Conference at Kentucky after a brief pro career in the NFL and in Canada. “It has been 20 years since I have been in front of you guys and speaking to fans that I actually know and have a relationship with and not at some place where I didn’t come from.

“That part of it, in and of itself, is very special to me. There have not been many guys who have come back to coach here. I’m just as excited to get started as our fan base is.”

Martin, who was the starting quarterback on the Tennessee team that set a school record for wins with 13, went undefeated and beat Florida State in the 1999 Fiesta Bowl, 23-16, to win the first Bowl Championship Series national championship.