Tennessee won’t wear Smokey Gray alternate uniforms against Kentucky this weekend, head coach Butch Jones confirmed on Tuesday night.
But he didn’t close the door on the possibility of the Vols wearing them this season.
“We’ll see,” Jones said when asked if the Vols will wear a Smokey Gray alternate uniform this season. “Again, it’s still in the evaluation stage of everything. Our player staff has a lot to do with it in terms of that’s one of the benefits of being on the player staff is that they decide what uniform we’re going to wear.”
The Vols have one other home game this season against Missouri. With the Vols trending towards a postseason berth, breaking them out for a bowl game would be a possibility as well. It’s unknown if this year’s version of the Smokey Grays would be the same as last year’s or if the Vols would alter the look at all. In case you missed it, RTI took a look at dozens of uniform concepts from Spencer Barnett earlier this fall.
Other post-practice notes from Jones:
• Jones said that WR Marquez North and RB Marlin Lane both practiced Tuesday and he “doesn’t see any reason” that they won’t be available for Kentucky. Running back Darrell Scott is narrowing the gap between himself and the top running backs, but Jones also noted
• Jones was asked about defensive lineman Kendal Vickers, who has been working at defensive end and defensive tackle, and he said he’s been developing well and could see some live game action very soon.
• Jones also mentioned that, though he’s redshirting, junior offensive tackle Dontavius Blair is making big strides, especially in the weight room.
•When asked if he felt the criticism from Butch Jones about his practice performance was unwarranted, Josh Dobbs told the media that he understood exactly what his coach was doing. “His job is to make me better,” Dobbs said. “Everyone has room for improvement and coach Jones pushes me every single day. I like that.”
•Kyle Kerbyson was asked multiple times about the social media response from Vol Nation during the season, and the redshirt junior’s response was actually quite comical. “People calling me names on Twitter didn’t bother me,” Kerbyson said. “I watched (Justin) Worley go through it last year, so it’s no big deal. People are happy now – tweeting good things. It wasn’t all bad in the first place, but the bad ones made us laugh.”
•Brian Randolph told media members that he and his team are very confident heading into this weekend’s game against Kentucky. “This week, we have an edge about ourselves,” Sutton told the gathered media. “We are ready to go. We are approaching the last three games one week at a time. This one is in our backyard and we pride ourselves on playing well at home.
