KNOXVILLE — Like any sensible 9-year-old, Matthew Grim watched the opening kickoff of Saturday night’s South Carolina-Tennessee game from the closed comfort of Neyland Stadium’s press box rather than outside in the cold rain.

Sometimes it’s nice to having a father (David) who works for Tennessee.

Yet when the Vols ran through the “T” just before opening kickoff in never-before-worn black jerseys, Grim was anything but overjoyed.

“Didn’t anyone tell them our colors are orange and white?” he said indignantly. “Black is not a Tennessee color.”

But that was before the defense forced fumbles on the Gamecocks’ first two possessions. Before Montario Hardesty tricked South Carolina and treated the fans to one of those spin moves that will live prominently all weekend on ESPN’s highlight countdown. Before the Vols grabbed a 14-0 lead in the opening quarter.

“The black jerseys are working,” a delighted young Grim said after the second Gamecocks fumble of the first period. “The black jerseys are working.”

It was all working against South Carolina. For the second time in his last two trips to Neyland, Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier watched his team fall behind 21-0 in the opening half. Spurrier rallied his troops to an overtime defeat in 2007, but this one never felt that way.

In fact, the most emotional moment of the first half came not on a play from this game, but a video tribute to injured UT linebacker Nick Reveiz. In the stands there was silence as faces followed the Knoxville native’s words and actions as he begins his rehab work.

On the field, his teammates all turned their eyes to the south end-zone video board, all of them cheering wildly when it ended.

You could almost hear them thinking: “Why can’t all this black magic instantly heal Nick’s knee?”

Of course, even on Halloween, wearing black appeared to work better for some than others. Not content to just wear black jerseys after being routed in that attire last season against Alabama, Georgia broke out black helmets and black pants against Florida.

The Dawgs still lost 41-17.

Kentucky’s players wanted to wear black for the wildcats’ game against Mississippi State on Saturday night, in keeping with its marketing department’s “Blackout” promotion of having the fans wear black.

UK’s old school coach Rich Brooks believed — much as young Matthew Grim initially did — that black wasn’t part of the UK color scheme and declined. After MSU gave the Cats’ bowl hopes a black eye in a 31-24 loss, Brooks was probably feeling both black and blue.

So you wonder what’s in a color that makes it special. Can clothes make the man, and if they can, when will the Vols officially make black their third color?

Until then, they can continue to embrace, at least for four more games, the words on the back of a number of black T-shirts in the UT student section.

Read those shirts in large orange letters: “Eric Berry … Yeah, He’s Scary!”

Whatever color he’s wearing.