Tennessee's orange helmets bring a crush of reactions from college football fans

Tennessee brought out orange helmets for the game at South Carolina on Saturday, and the Vols got a fairly universal positive reaction.

Several fans pointed out that the Vols appeared to resemble Clemson as the Gamecocks face their in-state rival next week in the Upstate. Some fans figured it helped the Vols’ speed, while others questioned if the helmets had something to do with the slow start as South Carolina took an early lead.

Earlier in the week, coach Josh Heupel said he gets excited when the kids get excited, and he loves the classic uniforms, but the players love to have a twist to them every now and then. He noted that the helmets were worn a long time ago and it’s part of the Tennessee tradition.

Here’s a sample of the reaction:

Those orange helmets though. pic.twitter.com/A2ZQ7vgnLp

— VolShop (@UTVolShop) November 20, 2022

Fact:

You appear much faster in orange helmets.

— Chad Fields (Vols Uniform Boy) (@CfieldsVFL) November 20, 2022

The orange helmets are giving me a bad feeling that this is gonna be closer than the experts predict

— Bart DiNardo (@bdinardo7) November 19, 2022

If Tennessee wore orange helmets with white tops to scare South Carolina into thinking they were Clemson, I have a ton of respect for that

— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) November 20, 2022

“Jalin Hyatt and Tennessee rocking those sweet orange helmets.” #vols pic.twitter.com/gVACjU6GH2

— Freak (@vol_freak) November 19, 2022

Huge missed opportunity not doing the checkerboard stripe on Tennessee’s orange helmets.

— parker, u n v e r i f i e d (@statsowar) November 20, 2022

South Carolina is playing great. But Tennessee’s orange helmets have to have something to do with its performance, right?

— Barrett Sallee ?? (@BarrettSallee) November 20, 2022

Instead of orange helmets, a better debut for Tennessee would’ve been a secondary that can cover

— Stephen Hargis (@StephenHargis) November 20, 2022