The Vols are set to wear their 10th uniform combination in the Josh Heupel era this Saturday when Tennessee hosts Austin Peay in the second game of the regular season.
Tennessee revealed a new variant of the Smokey Grey uniforms on Monday morning, with a clear intent of a modern twist on a throwback. The Vols’ 2023 Smokey Grey uniform is a tribute to Condredge Holloway on a modern grey base.
Unsurprisingly, the most frequent combination that Tennessee has worn is the traditional orange-and-white home look. The Vols have worn that look nine times under Heupel from his first game in 2021 to the most recent game against Virginia this past Saturday.
The all-white road combination has been used five times while the all-orange home combination has been used four times. That number is a little sneaky, though, as I categorized Tennessee’s all-orange with Summitt Blue accessories in its own space. If you were to combine that with the other all-orange looks, it would be even at five with the all-white.
Things start to get more interesting with Tennessee’s road “Orange Britches” combination next up with three appearances – two during the 2021 season and one time during the 2022 season.
Tennessee debuted *most* of the all-black Dark Mode uniform in 2021 but supply-chain issues held the Vols back from adding black helmets. The Vols used the all-black with white helmets look twice during the 2021 season.
In 2022, though, the Dark Mode look was completed. Tennessee donned the all-black look from the helmets to the cleats and came out with an iconic look on the field. It’s hard to forget Spooky Rocky Top playing before that Kentucky game, too.
Then you get to a number of combinations that have only been used once during the previous two years. That includes the Summitt Blue accessories from 2022, the original Nike Smokey Grey from the LSU game in 2022, and the first-ever orange helmet with white jerseys and white pants for the South Carolina game in 2022.
Tennessee will debut the new rendition of the Smokey Grey uniforms this Saturday against Austin Peay in the second game of the regular season from Knoxville’s Neyland Stadium.
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Here’s a look at all the uniform combinations that Tennessee has used in the first 27 (soon to be 28) games of the Josh Heupel era:
Classic Home Orange & White
- vs Bowling Green, ’21
- vs Tennessee Tech, ’21
- vs South Alabama, ’21
- vs Ball State, ’22
- vs Florida, ’22
- vs Alabama, ’22
- vs Missouri, ’22
- vs Clemson, ’22 (Orange Bowl)
- vs Virginia, ’23
All-White
- at Missouri, ’21
- at Alabama, ’21
- vs Purdue, ’21 (Music City Bowl)
- at Pittsburgh, ’22
- at Vanderbilt, ’22
All-Orange, White Helmet
- vs Pittsburgh, ’21
- vs Ole Miss, ’21
- vs Vanderbilt, ’21
- vs Akron, ’22
“Orange Britches”
- at Florida, ’21
- at Kentucky, ’21
- at Georgia, ’22
Dark-Mode with White Helmet
- vs South Carolina, ’21
- vs Georgia, ’21
All-Orange, Summitt Blue Accessories
- vs UT Martin, ’22
Smokey Grey
- at LSU, ’22
Smokey Grey 2: The Artful Dodger Tribute
- vs Austin Peay, ’23
All-Black Dark Mode
- vs Kentucky, ’22
Orange Helmet
- at South Carolina, ’22
2 Responses
Believe that we need to wear all Orange for this SCarolina home game. We need to overload them with all Orange on the field then checker the stadium. Plus we need to take away that bad taste of those Orange helmets from last season. Beating SCarolina badly in Knoxville with these Orange helmets is needed for these cool looking helmets to continue with Tennessee.
Orange helmet
Orange top
Orange bottom
Historically, especially in the color television era, has UT worn orange helmets? Last year’s South Carolina game. While I love orange, the orange helmet look was terrible! One other question. UT’s orange is very distinctive, and I think trademarked. Why is the orange used with a black and smokey grey uniforms an obnoxious bright orange? Black and/or grey stinks, and the bright orange makes it even worse!