Tennessee football should go all-in on black and orange with Kentucky game at night

It’s been a long time since this was a possibility, but an underrated tradition of Tennessee football was the excitement of a night game at home around Halloween when the Vols were relevant. Only twice this century, 2007 and 2001, did the Vols have such a game in which they were in any championship race.

Well, they’re about to have it again. The SEC announced that the Vols’ home matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats on Oct. 29, two days before Halloween, is set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Kentucky has a bye this week, and the Vols face the UT-Martin Skyhawks at noon.

Given the fact that they have worn them before, it’s around Halloween and it’s a night-game, Tennessee football’s apparel choice is obvious. The Vols need to bring back the black uniforms that they wore twice last year. They seemed to tease that on Twitter as well.

Don’t forget the 2009 game, when UT hosted the South Carolina Gamecocks on Halloween and Lane Kiffin brought out the black jerseys with orange pants. Last year, they twice wore all black. This time, though, they should bring back the orange pants with them.

In fact, take it a step further. Checker Neyland again, only this time, do it with black and orange, not white and orange. That combined with the night sky and the Halloween feel would be the most epic look ever, and there’s actually method to the madness.

Look, this is going to be a top 25 matchup. Unless something insane happens, Tennessee football will be 7-0 next week and remain in the top five. Since Kentucky is currently top 20 in both polls and not playing, they’ll be ranked next week too.

Despite them being ranked, the Vols may be caught looking ahead to the following week’s game against the Georgia Bulldogs. They shouldn’t, but they’ve never dealt with this type of success before, and with Will Levis getting fully healthy, Kentucky will be dangerous off a bye.

How do you counter that? Give the players a reason to get super motivated for the game. If you do black jerseys with orange pants and black and orange Checker Neyland while reminding them that this is a top 20 matchup, there’s no way they won’t get up for the game.

Of course, the Smokey Greys are still needed for a home game, and Danny White can break those out against the Missouri Tigers. Heck, he could even break them out this week against UT-Martin, as those need to be worn in Knoxville once given how that color with the orange fits the backdrop of East Tennessee perfectly.

That doesn’t mean the black jerseys can’t be worn at least once too, though, and this is the perfect opportunity to do it. Unlike the last Halloween weekend night game they had, Tennessee football is actually in the running for some big things this time too.