Conner Smith had to laugh when he saw the clip on Megan Moroney’s Instagram page in August. Moroney, a Georgia graduate, sat with her guitar, singing a song about falling so madly in love with a Tennessee fan that she was willing to wear — gasp! — Tennessee orange. In fact, “Tennessee Orange” was the name of Moroney’s song.
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Smith dashed off a note to Moroney.
“How did we end up writing two sides of the same song?” Smith asked his fellow singer-songwriter.
Within a week of each other earlier this year, Moroney wrote “Tennessee Orange” and Smith wrote “Orange and White.” Smith, a lifelong Tennessee fan who grew up in Nashville and whose parents have had season tickets for the Volunteers for years, sang about wooing a Georgia girl and convincing her to scrub the “G” off her cheek and don a Bill Dance-style Power T hat.
“Tennessee Orange”:
“Orange and White”:
No, Smith’s song is not about Moroney. And Moroney’s song isn’t about Smith. It’s a beautiful coincidence that they told two sides of the same story during a football season when Saturday’s Tennessee-Georgia game might be the most important regular-season showdown of the year.
It’s a House Divided license plate set to music, and the two songs together provide the perfect soundtrack for what is shaping up to be an incredible weekend in Athens.
“Everyone in the South really cares about football,” said Moroney, who has a marketing degree from Georgia and moved to Nashville from Athens — putting her in close proximity with many Tennessee fans — after she graduated in 2020. “With how people have related to it, I’ve found out even more that it’s not that uncommon for the house to be divided. You do some favors for your significant other.”
Moroney’s song was already getting airplay on The Highway, SiriusXM’s main country channel, in early October. But it began to take off after the Vols’ 52-49 win against Alabama on Oct. 15. “I’ll be honest,” Moroney said. “I was rooting for Tennessee hard that night.” But purely for professional reasons.
That night was huge for Smith as well. Though he has plenty of non-football songs — “Take It Slow” is a date-night banger co-written by Michigan fan and country star Ryan Hurd — Smith had gained a ton of traction in his home state with “I Hate Alabama,” a crying-in-your-beer ballad about Tennessee losing to Alabama repeatedly and getting dumped in the yard of a frat house in Tuscaloosa. The song easily could have been the soundtrack to a 16th consecutive loss to the Crimson Tide, but it served even better as an anthem to celebrate breaking the streak.
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Now, Moroney and Smith are ready for their songs — and their teams — to duel this weekend. Moroney makes clear at the end of “Tennessee Orange” that she still wants the Dawgs to win. Though her song’s character might wear that particular shade of orange for her man, Moroney will proudly wear Georgia red this weekend.
But she is open to wearing Tennessee orange on other weekends. There is only one orange that no amount of love would allow her to sport.
“Never Florida orange,” she said, laughing.
(Photo of Georgia coach Kirby Smart and Tennessee coach Josh Heupel: Bryan Lynn / USA Today)
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