Alternate jerseys aren’t out yet, but Tennessee Football has determined how it will apply its annual promotions for each home game this year. While some of them make sense, Danny White could do a better job spreading them out while also handling the promotions themselves a bit differently.

The headline of this is that the Vols will Checker Neyland when they face the Georgia Bulldogs for their SEC opener. That’s fine. You should probably Checker Neyland for your biggest game each year since it’s a way to add to the intimidating fan environment of Neyland Stadium.

However, they are also using that game to honor John Henderson for making the College Football Hall of Fame. Sorry, but honoring major athletes like Henderson, an Outland Trophy winner in 2000 and a two-time All-American, can be a distraction for a matchup like Georgia.

UT will make its Oct. 11 matchup with the Arkansas Razorbacks Champions weekend. Again, this is another mistake. The date itself is not bad, but champions honored should be milestone teams. The Vols have enough SEC and national title programs to honor one hitting a milestone each year of a decade.

Nov. 15 against the New Mexico State Aggies will be the Salute to Service and homecoming game. While Salute to Service makes sense since it’s the game closest to Veterans Day, they can do better with homecoming, which we’ll get to. Meanwhile, the Vanderbilt Commodores are Senior Day. No issue there.

So how should they handle all of this?

Well, let’s take these four events and then the two games in which the Vols will wear their Smokey Greys and alternate black uniforms. We should start with the games most dependent on dates, and that should be these two plus Senior Day. There’s no getting around Senior Day. It’s the last home game of every year. Salute to Service should always be close to Veterans Day.

Smokey Greys should be worn for a home game just before the start of fall or sometime in October. It shouldn’t be early September, when it’s still sunny out from the summer weather. You need it to jive with the gray skies and the Smoky Mountain backdrop making Neyland Stadium the best fall setting, and it should be for an afternoon game.

Alternate black uniforms need to be either the Saturday before Halloween or the Saturday immediately after if Halloween falls on a Thursday or Friday. White should work with the SEC to always make sure that game is a night kickoff as well, as the Vols give off the perfect vibe for it.

Again, Checker Neyland for your biggest home game. Homecoming should be against one of the bad non-conference teams. Then champions weekend and honoring specific players like Henderson could happen during the same home game, and that covers all seven of them.

Here’s how this season’s breakdown should look.

Champions Weekend and honoring Henderson: Sept. 6 vs. ETSU

Checker Neyland: Sept. 13 vs. Georgia

Homecoming: Sept. 20 vs. UAB

Smokey Greys: Oct. 11 vs. Arkansas

Alternate Black Unis: Nov. 1 vs. Oklahoma

Salute to Service: Nov. 15 vs. New Mexico State

Senior Day: Nov. 29 vs. Vanderbilt

See how smooth this is? You can honor Henderson and your champion, a specific one, for the home opener against the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers. Since you won’t a guaranteed win when honoring players, the Bucs are the perfect foe for both.

Facing the Arkansas Razorbacks in the heart of October calls for the Smokey Greys, and the Oklahoma Sooners the day after Halloween calls for the Alternate Black jerseys. NMSU and Vandy are designated as they should be already. That leaves the UAB Blazers, another bad team, for homecoming.

All of these designations at these times are the perfect way to keep fans interested. If you want to add a little sauce to it, have one of these games be one in which the Vols wear all orange, maybe their homecoming or Salute to Service matchup. Tennessee Football would keep fan interest with that.