TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: FLORIDA STATE v TENNESSEE

January 4, 1999

Phillip Fulmer

Dwayne Goodrich

Tee Martin

Peerless Price

TEE MARTIN: The last drive?

TEE MARTIN: The game plan coming in was to be aggressive and play smart. Early on we came out aggressive, I felt. Made some great calls in the passing games. I made a few mistakes from some interceptions. I learned from those mistakes. Coach gave me another chance to do it again. I appreciate that from him in having the confidence to go out and do it one more time. I gave Peerless another chance to come through for us, and he did; got a touchdown.

TEE MARTIN: Randy Sanders and the players also. Florida State, for the last game, all the marbles, what can we lose? If you go down shooting all your guns, you feel good about yourself. If you feel something that you could have let go, you feel bad about yourself. If it didn't work, we'd try to do it again next year. It came through for the best.

TEE MARTIN: We didn't change the offense. We kept the same basic game plan that we had going into the football game. The defense did a good job of slowing down our running game. When we got ahead 14 to nothing. I went down the sidelines telling everybody, Don't get happy, complacent because we're 14 points up. I'm glad everybody had that in their minds because Florida State came back and scored some points, scored off of one of my mistakes, the interception; put them in a good range to score some points. We knew even though we were ahead, we had to keep going on going, score more points; make it a good fourth quarter game.

TEE MARTIN: It feels good. The whole season we didn't really pay much attention to the BCS, really. We were trying to focus on if we won every football game, we would be in the best Bowl of the year. If we won convincingly, we'd be in this football game. We didn't pay much attention to the BCS polls. It feels good. I think we'll go down in history. It feels good to have won the first one.

TEE MARTIN: This whole season, even coming to the summertime, we knew he was a big play time. Everybody who left last year, he had one year to prove himself as an established receiver. Myself, coming in as a younger quarterback, I knew I had to go to somebody, I had to depend on somebody. Working out this summer, worked out maybe four, five times a week, I knew him. Knew how he think. I knew if we give him a chance with the football, he'd come down with it. That's pretty much how it's been the whole season with Peerless.

DWAYNE GOODRICH: Deon said he knew he'd move the top. I knew I just had to try to make a play. The ball kind of floated out there. I had to try to make a play on the ball.

TEE MARTIN: That's a great call by Coach. Actually, I was surprised to get a pass call when it was that close. What better guy to call it than Shawn Bryson. We knew they was going to try to rush up field, pack their linebackers to stop it. It was a great call by Coach. We had to execute. He was so wide open. I had to make sure I didn't over- or underthrow. He caught the ball to make the best of it.

DWAYNE GOODRICH: I mean, it's kind of a great feeling. You dream of this as a little kid growing up. Me being a defensive back, interception for a touchdown in a National Championship Game, that's like every defensive back's dream. I'm happy my dream came through. I didn't care about MVP. I just wanted to go out and help my team win the game.

DWAYNE GOODRICH: It was a case of me playing aggressive. A little of both, to be honest. The ball kind of floated out there, but I still had to make a great play on the ball.

TEE MARTIN: People not hearing. Me, I had to do some checking early on in the football game. We had to change that ahead of time. I was kind of saying stuff too hard. All of a sudden, everybody is in motion, jumping around, ready to do it. I just had to ease my words out a little bit more later on in the football game. You say something hard on the count, they're ready to shoot off. I think it was the same for Florida State, too.

DWAYNE GOODRICH: Not really. We studied film all throughout the three weeks that we prepared for the game. We kind of anticipated what they were about to run; so it was just a matter of just putting the pieces together. I kind of figured they were about to run the out route. I knew just to sit on the route.

TEE MARTIN: Not really. I didn't really pay attention when they were on the field. I was really talking to Coach on the phone, really didn't keep up with the penalties on the field until maybe the third or fourth quarter. I'm not sure how many they had.

TEE MARTIN: That's how we felt. We had a chip on our shoulder because of that. We were 12-0, won all of our football games, defending for the second year in a row. We don't get our respect. After winning the National Championship, that's grounds for getting the respect.

TEE MARTIN: It feels good right now. You win the National Championship -- I'm kind of tired, out of it really. But I'm happy that we won. I got hit kind of hard early in the third quarter. Trying to get back to myself. Feels good wining the game.

DWAYNE GOODRICH: I mean, it was he fell on my ankle. We kind of fell down together. Kind of rolled up on it. It's a deep bruise; so it will be fine. It will be fine.

TEE MARTIN: Yeah.

TEE MARTIN: Thank you.

TEE MARTIN: I don't think it was sloppy game. That's what you get when you play a great offense against a great defense. Our defense came in to play a great game. Both offenses played pretty good. That's really what you get. A lot of guys making mistakes. You want to capitalize off those mistakes. I don't think it was sloppy play. They had great players. We had great players.

PEERLESS PRICE: The first one in the first quarter. It was we felt like the DV was sitting on our route. We felt they could get them on a stop and go. Tee threw it out there. I did the easy part. I ran under it. I feel kind of bad because the guy caught me (laughter).

PEERLESS PRICE: We had a lot of guys step up tonight. But we've been having that throughout the whole season. Guys went down, key guys; we had guys step in. Jamal went down. We had both backs, Travis Henry, step in. Al has been hurt, Chris stepped up. We have a whole slew of guys who compete just as hard as the starters, probably could start anywhere else in the country.

DWAYNE GOODRICH: Tennessee recruits the Top 5 recruiting classes every year. You know when somebody goes down, bound for somebody to step up and make plays.

PEERLESS PRICE: I just felt like my team needed a big play. We needed another score because we knew those guys' offense was going to get going. The coach gave me a great opportunity: A straight go route, and I beat the DV, took it the distance. I made sure they wasn't going to catch me that time.

PEERLESS PRICE: He was completely confident. He put things behind him all year. Just made a good play. Once he threw the interception, we told him to put it in the back of his mind. That's what he did. He stepped up; made a play for us in the ballgame.

PEERLESS PRICE: I didn't feel that way. I felt like I had to go out there and play my game, help make some plays for my team to win.

COACH FULMER: I'm sure these two guys have answered all your questions so far. All year long we've been called a team of destiny, and this team took heart in that, I believe. During the course of the year, they did everything they had to do to win. It wasn't always perfect; it wasn't always the prettiest. But they found a way to get it done. I think that says an awful lot about the character. The leadership of the football team, starting with our seniors and captains, and permeates really through the team. The staff has been incredible, particularly with some of the adversities that we've had here this last month, losing our outstanding offensive coordinator, David. But Randy Sanders stepped up big, and the offensive staff stepped up big. The defense did an incredible job, as they have all year long. Going into the game, we knew we had to somewhat control the line of scrimmage on both sides, not let their defensive front just disrupt everything we're doing. We didn't run the ball great, but they didn't disrupt us either. Gave our opportunities players to make great plays: Tee getting it out there; Peerless make the plays. That's kind of been the story all year long. We're very honored to be a part of history as the first National Champion of the unified BCS. Set history at Tennessee at 13-0. We've never done that at Tennessee. It's very special to us. Just a great, great effort by a lot of people, special thanks to our fans who have traveled all the way out here to support us. I'll answer your questions and quit babbling.

COACH FULMER: No. Actually, we were not going to change too much of anything. We were not going to let Florida State's defensive front take over the game, and they can. They have all year long. We knew we had to be patient. We knew there were some plays to be made. When you play that much man-to-man coverage, as we did. There's opportunities for big plays in the passing game. Cornerbacks got it done on our side. Peerless got it done on our side for us.

COACH FULMER: ESPN, I respect ESPN, they're good men; have rights to their points. I'm going to take the middle right road there, thank you.

COACH FULMER: That's the reason you play the game. You go out and you play every Saturday to see who is the best. Our kids have believed in themselves all year long, starting with Syracuse. We said we don't have to be the best team in the country. We just have to be the best team on the Saturdays on the Mondays that we play. That's the approach they took. I don't think it's fair to compare this team with Peyton Manning. He got us off and running; helped us recruit this football team to Peyton Manning; got us over the hump. Then Tee Martin took over from there and the rest of the team. This could be our third time had we not had one or two losses earlier in the year. You can look at it any way you want to. I look at the glass half full. We're a little short of two others.

COACH FULMER: That was the call that we all agreed upon. Actually, more the debate was about whether to try the long field goal and put them away. That wasn't really something that was discussed very long. A couple of options that we had, but that's a play that we've worked on all year long. It was a huge, huge play for us. I think we had the first down without the penalty actually.

COACH FULMER: Well, the interception wasn't the best of his plays for the year, but I think overall he played an outstanding game. A lot of times it takes more courage to throw it away than it does to try to force it. You go all the way back to Syracuse game, Florida game, Tee has had the discipline to do that. We talk about game management. Tee knows how to manage a game. He gives you a threat as a runner. There was a guy that can break, contain, very difficult to defend. As the season has gone on, he's gotten better and better. I wouldn't trade Tee Martin for anybody in the country.

PEERLESS PRICE it was a huge factor. Anytime you compete to win a national championship, you expect a lot of your team. You got to go out there and put the hard work in the summertime, in the springtime, or it won't carry over into the season. It was a huge part of what we did this year, also for the first three years we were here.

COACH FULMER: You know, the off-sides penalties, I don't know. We told our kids all week long, we don't want to give them anything. We helped them quite a bit there with down and distances by the jumping. Kids were saying that the cadence or their cadence to shift on defense was very similar to our cadence. The noise factor made it hard on them. We haven't done that all year long. They did it some. They had two or three of the same thing. You can understand aggressive penalties, but those kind drive you crazy, make you an old man quick.

COACH FULMER: Peter Warwick is one of the best players we've seen this year. Obviously, the reason that he's MVP, an awful lot of it. After he was hurt, our cornerback stepping up. We had a nice mix of zone and man-coverage, a nice mix of press and playing off, catch technique. A lot of different ways that we tried to keep him under somewhat control. I don't know that it was Peter Warwick as much as the inexperience at quarterback that they had. They were put under some very difficult circumstances with a guy only having three starts to come in here and play the National Championship Game. Our pressure up front, it all goes together. You can't have one without the other. The two times we didn't get a lot of great pressure. They completed long balls on us and changed field position. For the most part, our defensive front did a great job, and our secondary and linebackers did a great job of coverage.

COACH FULMER: Say that again.

COACH FULMER: At the end of the game? I ain't thought of Arkansas since we played them (laughter), till you guys ask me about it. No, I don't think so. That was a young back, using awful poor technique at a really crucial time. Wish it hadn't happened. Those things have a way of evening themselves out over a period of time. I've always said that.

COACH FULMER: I was about stride for stride with him for a while (laughter). Not for very long, but for a while. It was a great throw, great catch. We talk a lot about stretch catching, using your body. I felt the guy had pretty darn good coverage on it. Then Peyton -- Peerless used his strength at the end to pull away from him. They caught him the first time on the first long one. He wasn't going to get caught again. I've never seen anybody catch Peerless from behind. Great throw, great catch. A lot of technique that goes into that. The reason that he'll be a good one on Sunday someday. Thank you, very much.