Week 11: November 14, 2026

 

The Ducks return home after a great win in Columbus that will presumably give new life to the chrome/white/black look from last week. I had predicted black and green vs. Michigan, but they pulled out a "Duckzilla" look with black, black, light gray with Godzilla wordmark on back of helmet and Japanese script on front bumper. 

First time wearing gray pants this season, but each of the past years have sported light gray pants once. This exact combo is close to the opening game of 2010. Chip Kelly  and Mark Helfrich teams wore gray pants a lot, but not as much since.

 Like last season, the Ducks have started the season with more green and the middle has been very black and white. I hope that against MSU and UW they wear more yellow.

Week 10: November 7, 2026

 

 

The Ducks on the road to their seemingly-biggest Big-10 rival Ohio State. Before the season this was the biggest game on their schedule and likely only loss, but boy have times changed for both teams. The Ducks have had a mixed record against the Buckeyes, but have won the last 2 regular season games and lost the last 2 post season games. 

This chrome, white, black with the "Mummy Ducks" accessories is similar to their road game last year at Penn State, except with chrome helmet and dark green wings. And frankly in the marketing photos, they lit the ensemble so darkly that the chrome helmet is just kinda murky dark. And its like the USC game this year but with black pants.

This set is not dissimilar to chrome, white, nightmare at ASU in 2023, but other than that game this is the first time they have done this combo.

Before the season, I predicted all-white stormtrooper to echo their win at Columbus in 2021.

 

Week 9: October 31, 2026

Back home on Halloween. Historically the Ducks have done blackouts in this spot, and I had guessed all black but they switched it up a bit. Never before seen combo of black/black/white. First black helmet with white wings. 

They very rarely wear white pants at home, let alone paired with dark top. The last time was the 2023 Civil war where they had green helmet and jersey. They first wore white at home in the 2009 Civil War win followed up by white pant as home team in the 2010 Rose Bowl loss. They paired white pants with apple green jersey and white helmet three times in 2014-16.

 

Is the "6" year curse a thing?

The way the Duck's season is going, you wonder if the "6" curse is a thing? I don't really discuss wins/losses much on this blog unless they seem connected to uniforms. But in 35 years as a Duck fan I have noticed that they have been very good over that span, but their down years do include years ending in 6. Keep in mind that until Rich Brooks turned it around in the early 1990s, six+ losses was pretty much the norm, so this is just counting since Mike Bellotti took over in 1995.

Seasons with more than 6 losses (or no bowl game, which is rare):

2016    Mark Helfrich    4–8    2–7    6th    No Bowl
2006    Mike Bellotti    7–6     4–5     T–5th     L Las Vegas
2004     Mike Bellotti     5–6    4–4    T–5th    No Bowl
2002     Mike Bellotti     7–6    3–5    8th    L Seattle
1996     Mike Bellotti     6–5    3–5    T–5th    No Bowl

So in  31 seasons, the Ducks have only missed a bowl game in  3 seasons, and gone sub .500 in 4 seasons, and the "6" years account for 3/5 of the bad seasons.

Getting back to uniforms, the 2016 season was arguably the worst season since 1991, and it was ironically the wildest, most experimental year in Oregon uniform history. The epitome of their uniform craziness while underperforming came in this set for the UW game which snapped the Ducks 12-game streak against the Huskies and pretty much got Mark Helfrich on road to being fired.

 https://ducktracker2.blogspot.com/2016/10/whats-old-is-new-again.html 

 

Week 8: October 24, 2026

On the road at Illinois. Going yellow-white-white for only the third time ever—the first was a 2021 win at UW, second in 2024 win at Purdue. The throwback white jersey with the modern silver-accented-white pants is a bit forced (I'd have loved yellow or green pants), but helped out by fact that the Big10 logo is silver.

 

 

Week 7: October 17, 2026

Home again after a brutal loss to UCLA—kinda tempers the uniform reveal. 

In my attempt to forecast this year's sets, I did think this week would be green/black but had the colors reversed. This uncommon green/black/green set is VERY close to last year's week 7 home loss to Indiana, so I'm kinda wondering about the thinking on this choice. (after game edit: they almost lost which might have doomed this set) 

This is seemingly only the third time ever they have worn this combo-the previous were both losses. The Ducks more commonly have worn green/black/black in the past, in big games like the Big10 championship game and USC last year.

 

 

Week 6: October 10, 2026

After the bye in week 5, the Ducks don another special uniform at home vs UCLA.  Since black helmets were introduced in 2008, this is the 21st mono black/nightmare green worn, and third year in row.

 

See my detailed writeup here.