It’s a weekly occurrence these days, people wondering what uniforms the Vols will be wearing for their upcoming game, and this week has been no different heading into Saturday’s game against the arch-nemesis (and I don’t use that term lightly). In a game in which Tennessee is trying to end a nine game losing streak to interdivisional foe Florida, no potential luck-changing mojo is off the table for this one – uniforms or otherwise.
The #CheckerNeyland movement is in full-swing, and college football fans across the country will be tuned in to see if Tennessee fans are able to pull off such a feat without receiving any shirts from the university. An idea that started as nothing more than a photoshopped picture has now morphed into a full-force fan movement that appears primed to turn Neyland Stadium into the world’s largest checkerboard on Saturday at 12-noon.
But it almost never happened.
RTI recently learned that the original plan for this weekend was for Tennessee to bust out the new Smokey Gray uniforms (yes, those jerseys) that made their debut a few weeks ago in retail stores. However, the poor reception from the fan base resulted in someone pulling the plug on that plan before it ever got started. Butch Jones has said recently that the final decision hasn’t been made on whether or not Tennessee will wear gray jerseys at all in 2014.
I think we all know why.
But, with gray out of the equation for Saturday, there has been some speculation as to whether the Vols will roll out the traditional orange tops with white pants to compliment the checkerboard stadium, or perhaps even steal a page from last year’s game against South Carolina and bust out the all orange garb. The Vols have only rocked the all orange look a handful of times in the last decade, but after losses to Auburn in 2009 and LSU in 2007, last year’s win over South Carolina may have been just the curse-breaker that the all orange combination has been waiting on.
Considering that the early intention for this game was to wear an alternate jersey, one can’t help but think that their may be something else in place for this weekend’s game. Maybe all orange is the move in lieu of the grays, or maybe something else entirely. Jones has said before that he is a big fan of the head-to-toe orange look – the Vols have donned it in each of the previous two Orange and White Games to end spring practice – but he will likely leave this decision up to the seniors.
There aren’t many of them, so tallying the votes should be a pretty quick process.
*UPDATE*
We heard this evening that there is a strong chance of the Vols indeed wearing all orange tomorrow. Obviously, we aren’t going to recommend you take that one to the bank, but this is one that may have some legs.
