Tennessee football is preparing for its first ever matchup against Illinois on the gridiron in next week’s Music City Bowl at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Illinois announced its uniform combination for the matchup on Saturday with the Fighting Illini wearing their all blue uniforms.
The Illini usually wear an orange helmet with a block “I” on it but are instead wearing navy blue helmets with a script “Illinois” written across it.
When we said Navy in NashvILLe, we meant it. pic.twitter.com/mdX7JqiQuj
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) December 27, 2025
It’s the first time all season that Illinois is wearing the all blue look. Illinois is 6-0 this season in its traditional home uniforms with orange helmets, navy jerseys and orange pants. They’re 0-1 in both their all orange uniforms and orange helmets, white jerseys and white pants uniform combo. The Fighting Illini are 2-2 in their traditional away uniforms— orange helmets, white jerseys and orange pants.
Tennessee has yet to officially announce its uniform combination for the game. The Vols have announced they’re wearing white jerseys but it’s unclear whether they’re wearing orange or white pants. Tennessee has yet to wear white jerseys with orange pants this season.
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Tennessee is 1-2 in Music City Bowl history. The Vols wore their traditional home uniforms in a loss against North Carolina in 2010, their smokey grey uniforms in a win over Nebraska in 2016 and their all white uniforms in a loss against Purdue in 2021.
Tennessee football went 8-4 (4-4 SEC) in the regular season. The Vols took care of business against struggling SEC teams including Florida and Arkansas, but failed to get any quality wins. Tennessee lost to all four teams they faced that finished the season ranked.
The Fighting Illini entered the season with high expectations after going 10-3 with a bowl win over South Carolina a season ago. They disappointed a bit this year, posting an 8-4 (5-4 Big 10) record. Illinois lost by 53 points against Indiana and also lost to Ohio State, Washington and Wisconsin. Its best win came against USC back in late September.
It’s the first ever matchup between Tennessee and Illinois on the gridiron. The two have faced off in basketball each of the last three season with the Vols winning the first two matchups and Illinois knocking off Tennessee earlier this month in Nashville.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Illinois is at 5:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 30 at Nissan Stadium. Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers and Cole Cubelic are on the call for ESPN.
