Tennessee is going with a classic look on Saturday in Nashville for the season-opening game against Virginia.
As announced by Tennessee on Twitter, the Vols will be going with the traditional orange-and-white home combination featuring a white helmet, orange jersey, and white pants. The game against Virginia will be played in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.
“Unique that we get a chance to kick off in a neutral-site game, but it’s inside of our home state here,” head coach Josh Heupel said on Wednesday. “A lot of our alumni, fans reside over there in Nashville in the mid-state, so excited to have the opportunity to go play a really good Virginia football team over there.”
the classics ⚪️🟠⚪️#DICKSHouseofSportKNX#GBO 🍊 pic.twitter.com/aPpg9E5KFh
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) August 31, 2023
While the last two season openers have been played in Neyland Stadium, the Vols have now gone with the classic orange-and-white look for the first game in each of Josh Heupel’s three seasons on Rocky Top.
Tennessee wore four different home uniform combinations last season: classic orange-and-white (Ball State, Florida, Alabama), all-orange (Akron), all-orange with Summitt Blue accessories (UT Martin), and all-black Dark Mode (Kentucky).
In addition to the normal decals that Tennessee will be wearing on the helmet, Heupel also revealed this week that the Vols will have a decal to honor the three UVA football players who died in a tragic shooting at the University of Virginia last November. This will be the first football game that Virginia has played in since the shooting. The Cavaliers canceled their final two games last season due to the tragedy.
“It’s obviously a horrific tragedy that took place there on their campus,” Heupel said on Monday. “They’ve had a long time to try and grow through that. We also recognize what happened. There will be a moment of silence before kickoff, and we’ll wear a decal of the three individuals that lost their lives on the back of our helmets.”
Kickoff between Tennessee and Virginia is at noon ET Saturday. Joe Tessitore and Jesse Palmer are on the call for ABC.
