Tennessee has officially announced that the October 29 game against Kentucky will be a night game in Neyland Stadium.
The Vols announced the game using a very interesting graphic on Monday. So let’s put on the speculation caps and see what we can come up with.
The black background is the standout component of the tweet here. While, yes, the obvious answer is right there in front of us. It’s going to be a night game under the cold Knoxville pitch-black sky.
But could it also be a tease toward Tennessee wearing their all-black Dark Mode uniforms?
We know that Tennessee has already used one alternate uniform combination when the Vols wore the Smokey Grey fits against LSU in Baton Rouge. That leaves Tennessee with only the Dark Mode alternate left.
With the game against Kentucky being under the lights, at night, and two days before Halloween… there’s certainly a chance that we could see the return of the Dark Mode uniforms for that contest.
Neyland at Night!
📅 October 29
📺 @espn
🕖 7:00 ET
🏟 Neyland Stadium pic.twitter.com/VH2eer0fXJ— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) October 17, 2022
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The Vols only have three more home games lined up this season: this Saturday against UT Martin, Oct. 29 against Kentucky, and Nov. 12 against Missouri. With Homecoming being this weekend against UT Martin, it seems highly unlikely that Tennessee will do anything outside of the norm. However, that Missouri game could be a possibility. But with the Halloween environment, I suspect the Kentucky game will be the choice.
Tennessee first debuted the all-black look against South Carolina at home last year. The Vols donned black jerseys with orange numbers, black pants with orange stripes, and a new redesigned white helmet with several black accents added in. At the time, the idea was to have black helmets to go along with the jerseys as well. However, supply-chain issues forced Tennessee into the makeshift direction that they went with, which still looked great.
Could we see Tennessee add black helmets to the combination this year? It certainly seems possible.
Here are Tennessee’s uniform combinations that have been worn through the first six games of the season:
Week 1 – vs Ball State
- White helmet, orange jersey, white pants
Week 2 – @ Pittsburgh
- White helmet, white jersey, white pants
Week 3 – vs Akron
- White helmet, orange jersey, orange pants
Week 4 – vs Florida
- White helmet, orange jersey, white pants
Week 6 – @ LSU
- Smokey Grey helmet, Smokey Grey jersey, Smokey Grey pants
Week 7 – vs Alabama
- White helmet, orange jersey, white pants
