Tennessee released new smokey grey uniforms Monday morning and the Vols will quickly make their debut in them.
The Vols are rocking the Condredge Holloway era inspired alternate uniforms against Austin Peay in Saturday’s home opener. The Saturday, Sept. 9 matchup against Austin Peay comes 51 years to the day after Condredge Holloway was the first African American to start at quarterback for a SEC school.
Tennessee dominated Georgia Tech 34-3 that day and Holloway shined in his first career start.
While Tennessee never wore these grey uniforms during Holloway’s playing days, they did wear white uniforms with the same orange top over the shoulder pads.
It’s a new smokey grey uniform for Tennessee but it won’t be the last. When the Vols brought back the smokey grey uniforms in 2022 they announced that they were partnering with Nike to create three new smokey grey unforms that Tennessee would wear over the next three years.
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The Condredge Holloway era themes uniforms are the second of four smokey grey variant uniforms.
“When we arrived on Rocky Top, one of our primary goals was to honor our storied tradition with a modern twist,” Tennessee Director of Athletics Danny White said in a statement. “This year’s Smokey Grey uniform does just that; it pays homage to a Tennessee legend and the first African American quarterback in the SEC, Condredge Holloway, but is a modern look for our current student-athletes.
“I can’t wait to see our team run through the T on Sept. 9 in the home opener in the Smokey Grey uniform, on the 51st anniversary of Condredge’s first start as a Vol.”
Tennessee rocked its classic home jerseys for its 2023 season opener against Virginia last Saturday. The Vols posted a 4-0 record in their class home jerseys a season ago and went 1-0 in the smokey grey uniforms— blowing out LSU in Baton Rouge.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Austin Peay is at 5 p.m. ET Saturday evening. SEC Network+ is streaming the game.
