We are exactly a week away from Tennessee football meeting Illinois inside Nissan Stadium for the Music City Bowl. On Tuesday, it was revealed on the bowl’s X account which jerseys the Vols will be wearing. It posted the bowl game patch on Braylon Staley’s No. 14 white jersey.
This indicates that the Music City Bowl will continue its trend of alternating the SEC team as the home and away team every year. In 2025, it’s the SEC and Tennessee’s turn to be the away squad. That does mean UT gets to call the opening coin toss, though it’s had horrible luck in doing so this season.
While we know what jersey Tennessee will be wearing, it’s still unclear what color the britches will be. The Vols have gone with white-on-white in every opportunity this season, but could mix it up with orange britches with the white jersey for the first time this year.
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Tennessee is 1-2 in its three previous trips to the Music City Bowl. The Vols wore orange uniforms in their loss against North Carolina in 2010. Tennessee wore Smokey Grey uniforms in its lone win in the Music City Bowl back in 2016, before wearing white uniforms in a loss to Purdue in 2021.
Tennessee has worn all-white uniforms three times this season, with the Vols posting a 2-1 record in those games. Josh Heupel’s fifth Tennessee team lost at Alabama while winning at Kentucky and Florida in its ‘stormtrooper’ uniforms.
The Vols are 1-0 in their Smokey Grey uniforms, 2-0 in their all orange uniforms, 3-2 in their traditional home uniforms and 0-1 in their dark mode uniforms this season.
Illinois enters the Music City Bowl with an 8-4 (5-4 Big 10) record. The Fighting Illini’s best win came against USC, while they dropped games against Indiana, Ohio State, Washington and Wisconsin. Tennessee football enters the matchup 8-4 (4-4 SEC) with losses against Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Illinois is at 5:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Dec. 30, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. ESPN is broadcasting the game.
One Response
The Bowls should allow the teams to wear whichever uniforms they want as long as the uniforms aren’t the same colors. Look at how UCLA/USC or Oregon/Oregon State look in their games. Mandating one team where white so you can tell them apart is so 1950’s when TV was just black and white.