BIG ORANGE TURNING BLUE
With the temperature at kickoff of 28 degrees, Tennessee’s game at Missouri on Saturday night was the fourth-coldest on record in the program’s history. Here’s a list of the 10 coldest games the Vols have played since 1950, according to Tennessee’s sports information staff.10 degrees: Nov. 25, 1950 vs. Kentucky in Knoxville (W 7-0)18 degrees: Nov. 22, 1952 vs. Kentucky in Knoxville (T 14-14)25 degrees: Nov. 26, 1977 vs. Vanderbilt in Knoxville (W 42-7)29 degrees: Jan. 1, 2001 vs. Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas (L 35-21)30 degrees: Nov. 21, 1981 at Kentucky in Lexington (W 45-14)30 degrees: Nov. 29, 2003 at Kentucky in Lexington (W 20-7)31 degrees: Nov. 30, 1957 vs. Vanderbilt in Knoxville (W 20-6)31 degrees: Nov. 21, 1987 at Kentucky in Lexington (W 24-22)32 degrees: Nov. 18, 2000 vs. Kentucky in Knoxville (W 59-20)33 degrees: Jan. 1, 1969 vs. Texas in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas (L 13-36)
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Tennessee spent the week practicing either indoors or outside in weather approaching 70 degrees.
That was in stark contrast to what the Volunteers ran into at Missouri on Saturday night.
The temperature dropped to 28 degrees by the 6:15 p.m. local time kickoff, which made the game the fourth-coldest on record in Tennessee program history. It was the coldest game the Vols have played since 1977 against Vanderbilt in Knoxville.
Tennessee coach Butch Jones said during the week he wished the weather in Knoxville was colder so his team could better prepare for what they would play in on Saturday night.
"I was hoping for a little bit of colder weather in preparation this week, but we haven't had that," he said Wednesday. "You talk about it and you embrace it. Both teams have to play in it."
The Vols held a walk-through at Faurot Field earlier Saturday afternoon, and some players embraced the freezing temperatures and brutal winds shortly after arriving a couple of hours before kickoff by taking their shirts off.
Tennessee had portable heaters and heated benches on their sideline during the game.
In similar chilly temperatures before last season's South Carolina game, many of the defensive players warmed up without shirts, and many of the players warmed up in short-sleeve and sleeveless shirts at Missouri.
None of Tennessee's players wore sleeves during the game.
"You really don't feel it," linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin said. "Once you get going, your body gets warm. You get cold on the sideline, but once you're on the field you've got other problems to worry about besides how cold you are."
The forecasted cold was a talking point for the Vols during the week, and some players were more wary about it than others.
"I'm from the Midwest, so I'm used to cold weather," said freshman linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr., an Indianapolis native. "My last high school game it snowed like four inches. I'm just kind of used to it and hoping for some crazy weather. It's going to be a crazy environment to be in, so any variable we play in is going to be fun."
Said senior safety and Georgia native Brian Randolph: "I don't like the cold."
Saturday night's game may have been one of the coldest Tennessee's played in history, but Kirkland shrugged it off.
"It's not as cold as what I've ever experienced," he said proudly. "I think the coldest I've ever been in is negative-30 at home. It can't be that."
It wasn't, but it probably felt like that to some of the Vols in Columbia.
"That's challenging in terms of how do you simulate it in practice, but you have to start controlling your mind," Jones said. "We call those uncontrollable factors. That's part of the game, and it's being locked in that zone, having that mental focus and preparing for it."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com