Rae Sykes can look back at National Signing Day and smile when he thinks of his college choice.

The defensive end from Alcoa High School signed in February to play football at Tennessee.

Sykes, who was returning from a biceps injury he suffered his junior year, said choosing between the Vols and Florida State during his senior season was more difficult than he expected.

The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Sykes talked about making the difficult decision and his goals at UT in this GVX Q & A.

Q: What was your least favorite part about recruiting?

A: The phone calls. Oh boy, I hated all those phone calls. I’m glad it’s over with. I’m glad I made the choice I did. I made a good choice.

Q: What did you do to handle the phone calls?

A: Really, I told the coaches and everybody I had it narrowed to just Florida State and Tennessee. Even though I said that they were still trying to get me to take UT off my list and put them on there. I stuck with my plans and I’m glad I did.

Q: What did you learn from the recruiting process?

A: I thought it was going to be a breeze. It was a very hard decision. I had to think about it for a while. It came down to that morning (on Signing Day) and God gave me the feeling to stick with UT. I stuck with that decision and I’m glad I did.

Q: Was the decision a drag on your senior season?

A: Now that I look back on it, I would say a little bit but not too much. I tried to keep it out of my mind and focus on the season. My stats weren’t too good. They were decent but not like they were the year before.

Q: Who has made most significant influence on your football career?

A: I have to say my two little brothers. That’s what they want to see is me playing football. They just want to see me play for UT. All they kept saying is, ‘Don’t go too far Rae. I want to come to your games and see you play.’ They’d come home with a picture of a player in an Alcoa jersey with dreads and my number 90. That was a big part of it.

Q: How happy were they when you chose UT?

A: They were real excited. They were just like everyone else. They were wanting to know where I was going to go. On Signing Day, once the word got around, they were in school, but they came home from school with a Valentine’s Day card. They had a picture of me signing my scholarship. It said, ‘Hope you have fun at UT.’ It was simple stuff like that. That was a big part of it. I didn’t want to let them down. It wouldn’t have felt the same not running through the ‘T’ and seeing my little brothers standing up there.

Q: What are your goals at UT?

A: I just plan to keep my game up and keep increasing it and get stronger, quicker and faster. Just dominate. Dominate the defensive line. (UT’s coaches) told me I have the potential to. I took their word.

Q: What is your favorite part about playing football?

A: My favorite part of it is I get the adrenaline by tackling people and chasing down the quarterback. I love hearing the crowd go wild.

Q: Who is your favorite athlete?

A: It’d have to be Julius peppers. He’s something like me. He’s a beast on the other side of the line. He’s all about his business. He stays in the game throughout the whole game.

Q: What is your favorite athletic moment?

A: Really just coming back from my injury and having as many tackles as I did. That was a big injury. I broke my bicep in half. It was completely broken in half. It was my junior year, the 10th week in October. It was the last week of the regular season. We were going into the playoffs. I was nervous about it through the season. I had at least 70 tackles for the (2006) season.