Tennessee football makes a habit of all-orange uniforms vs. Joe Moorhead

When the Mississippi State Bulldogs, led by Joe Moorhead, visited Tennessee football in 2019, the Vols broke out the orange jerseys with orange pants combination for the first time since 2016. It was a desperate time, and Jeremy Pruitt needed a splash.

The Vols were 1-4 after losing their first two games to the Georgia State Panthers and BYU Cougars. With the good luck charm of the all-orange uniforms, though, they managed to pull out a 20-10 victory over a favored MSU team.

That sparked Tennessee football’s hot finish that year, as they won seven of their final eight games and their final six games to finish 8-5. Now, Moorhead is heading back into Rocky Top as head coach of the Akron Zips. The Vols announced on Twitter they’ll be wearing the all orange uniforms for that game too.

At this point, UT is making a habit of the all orange against Moorhead. Of course, while 2019 ended in strong fashion, a 2020 flameout combined with an NCAA investigation resulted in Pruitt’s firing at the end of that year.

Ironically, the flameout began when Pruitt and the Vols broke out the all orange again, this time for the Kentucky Wildcats, and lost at home 34-7. As a result, wearing these isn’t always a good omen. In fact, they can sometimes be the opposite.

Rocky Top almost never wore orange pants in the Phillip Fulmer era. Probably the first time they did it was 1999, when they faced the Memphis Tigers at home. As 35-point favorites, they won that game 17-16, needing a late touchdown to pull it out.

Not until 2007 did Tennessee football wear the all orange again, and they did it in the SEC Championship game against the LSU Tigers. Three late mistakes by Erik Ainge cost them that game in a 21-14 heartbreaking loss.

A year later, they broke out orange pants on the road for the first time under Fulmer, and they lost their opener to the UCLA Bruins in the process. That launched a 5-7 season, which resulted in Fulmer’s firing at the end of the year.

Okay, so orange pants don’t have any special powers. This doesn’t really mean anything. However, it is interesting that the Vols are wearing all orange again when facing Moorhead, although this time they are doing it as heavy favorites.

Moorhead was fired by MSU at the end of that year, not due to lack of production but because they had a chance to get Mike Leach. His loss to Tennessee football spurred some short-lived momentum behind Pruitt that flamed out in early 2020.