Redbox Bowl, Dec. 31, 2018

The Ducks wore, arguably, their best 2018 combo for their bowl game. The yellow/green/yellow combo is a classic home set (I'd argue it should be the main home uniform!) and this year its been woefully underworn with the mono-everything, simple look that the Ducks have adopted for 2018! While the game was not exactly an offensive showcase, the uniform did not disappoint (and you can also argue that Oregon has been visually underwhelming in many big bowls of late)

Week 13: November 23-24, 2018

Week 12: Nov. 17, 2018

Week 11: Nov. 10, 2018

It's been since week 7 (a whole month ago!) that the Ducks wore any color. The last 3 weeks have been 2 road games with mono-white and a home game with mono-black. This week brings us the third time Oregon has worn this combo this season.

Week 10: Nov. 3, 2018

Last week we saw our first "minor" mix/match mono. This week the Ducks are back to full mono, but with a  twist. Its a Nike Jordan Jumpman uniform with different number font, different shade of green (we had apple, neon and now forest?)  and Jordan's elephant skin pattern (??) sublimated on white numbers.

WARNING: OPINION AHEAD....I'll be honest that I'm just not clear on the concept with this set? The one thing they have going for them is that they're not some wild, unusual, crazy concept. They are kinda boring, and only a logo/font away from the normal black set. But that is also their downfall. What is their hook here? This week is usually the week that teams wrap themselves in the flag for Veteran's Day and "Salute to Service" types of things. But the Ducks are saluting an—albeit great/famous—basketball star who has no connection to Oregon except that he is a brand ambassador for the hometown Nike? I love what Nike has done for UO, but just don't get the timing since this must have been planned for months/years? I'm not bagging on uniforms because of the W/L record since these are planned way in advance.

The Ducks have had some great alternate uniforms but more often some horrible ones ("Grellow" helmet, Lewis and Clark, State flag...) I would not lump this in with those, but these seem to fall into the category of the uniforms they wore last year for the childhood cancer game, which were variations of the normal uniform, but not special.

Week 9: October 27, 2018

So the Ducks finally did break from their 7-game lock on the same combos they previewed in August. (See my posts about this previous to this post.) Black helmet over all white. Against Arizona, which wore all red...so I guess its like the old joke: "What's Black and White and Red all over?"

Here's the interesting fact...In looking back 6 seasons, the Ducks have not worn this combo of black/white/white! Usually they pair it with yellow jersey or put colored pants with it. And you have to go back 2 years to get a black helmet with white jersey.

Will the Ducks go beyond mono?

In my previous post I examined how Oregon has only worn the mono-colored versions of their new 2018 uniforms so far this season. That led me to want to test out other combos, as the Ducks have been famous for over the years.

The result is mixed, pun intended. Since they have so far only shown one version of each pant, jersey and helmet, this leaves the accent color (logos, numbers etc) as the determining factor in matching sets. (In past years, they swapped accents willy nilly, especially on helmets.) This is complicated by the fact that the black uniform uses neon green accents that do not match the apple green of the other sets. And the yellow uses only black accents that feel out of place with the green jerseys.

Here I have laid out my choices for when they need to go beyond mono colors:

I think the top contenders are:

• black, yellow, yellow
• yellow, green, green
• black, white, white (10-27-18 Update: this is what they went with in week 9)
• black, white, black
• yellow, white, yellow

Have the Ducks become predictable?

Once a bastion of "new uniform for a new week" mentality the last few years, Oregon in 2018 has become predictable.

The seeds of this trend were sewn in 2016 during Mark Helfrich's last season, where each week was heralded by a new—often wacky—combo. This included uniforms that sported lots of black (not a school color) orange (Beaver gasp!) and blue/gold (Cal?) against the Huskies (double gasp/choke!). While they used the same road jerseys five times they mixed up helmet stickers and pants. 2016 was the pinnacle of this mix/match trend that Oregon started in 1998. Only one week was an exact repeat.

2016 regular season:

The results of that campaign brought down Helfrich and created a backlash against the flash that people saw instead of results.

This ushered in Willie Taggart at Oregon. His only season in 2017 actually had a few weeks where a combination was repeated (games 1&11; 4&10), and some leftovers from 2016 showed up! Most notably, the individual elements mostly stayed the same if you remove the week 2 specialty uniform:

• "Only" four helmets (five if you count black O sticker)
• Four green jerseys were the same
• Five road white jerseys were the same
• Two yellow jerseys were the same from 2016  

2017 regular season:

Come summer 2018 and we are introduced to four "mono" uniform sets with one matching winged-helmet design (white/silver, black, yellow and green). I think most people assumed this set was ripe for the mixing and matching! But through seven games this fall, the Ducks have not mixed them up yet! Each game has been one of the four "mono" combos. (2 whites, 2 yellows, 2 greens and 1 black) Here is my best guess as to their uniforms if they stick with the trend. The upcoming three road games use the template from last two roads. Chip Kelly gets a blackout in Eugene and green against the Sun Devils.

The only thing I see wrong with mixing up these combos, is that the neon green on the black set does not match the apple green set. And the white jerseys have no yellow/green, so the only nice looking set would be white and yellow? (But that is a blog post for later in the week)

Week 8: Oct. 20, 2018

A very monochromatic gray/silver evening in Pullman for WSU's first ESPN Gameday experience, with a very unsparkling result for Oregon who wore white/silver in a  big game for what seems like the umpteenth time, and to similar poor result!

You can revisit my 2015 post about how during Chip Kelly's years, the Ducks lost more often than not when they wore no school colors! 

https://ducktracker2.blogspot.com/2015/09/unlucky-duck-uniform-combos.html

Week 7: October 13, 2018

In their six games so far, Oregon has yet to wear a non-mono outfit. I was thinking they would finally break out a green/yellow version against their most bitter rival the Washington Huskies.  But I'm beginning to think that may not happen since the yellow pants have black accents that don't quite jive with the green jersey.

So we are left with an all-yellow repeat of week 1. At home this yellow look goes well with the green turf.  But hey if you are a Duck fan, they could be wearing anything as long as they beat the Huskies, which they did! 13 wins in 15 years!

Week 5: Sept. 29, 2018

For the 5th week in a  row, we get a mono-color set from Oregon. (Yeah I know helmet is silver) They have stuck to the looks that they unveiled in August and have yet to mix and match from these 4 sets. It will be noteworthy when they finally do.

Another noteworthy aspect of this week's non-school-color set is that it is a scheme that has not been very lucky for the Ducks, and going into Berkeley after last week's Stanford collapse seems like an odd time to do that. Last year the Ducks wore this silver/white/white look and they lost badly in Seattle and Tempe, but beat Nebraska in Eugene.

Week 4: Sept. 22, 2018

With ESPN College GameDay on campus for the 10th time, the Ducks went traditional against Stanford....sorta. I was really thinking they would do a current take on their classic yellow/green/yellow, but instead we get a repeat of game 2 and their mono-green look. It did make for a good contrast with Stanford's road whites. So far this season Oregon has only worn mono-color looks, which is getting a touch old.

Week 3: Sept. 15, 2018

So far this season we have been treated to the mono-color versions of two of the Ducks' new set: all-yellow and then all-green. I was thinking that for this week's matchup we'd see a mix of the two since this is a home game against an easy opponent. I predicted a classic Yellow/Green/Yellow.... BUT, Oregon surprised us with the third mono-color in a  row.

This time it was their blackout/neon green set. What makes this seem like an odd choice is that this game was against a low-tier opponent (but they played kinda mediocre) in the middle of the day—when they usually save the blackout uniform for a high profile home night game near Halloween...like—I dunno—next week's evening home game vs highly ranked Stanford? Oh well, I won't complain too much, since I honestly think this black set is their weakest one, with black being a rival's color and that neon green just not that design friendly. But today the neon green looked pretty decent in the daylight, but this game and uniform are something to put away.

Week 2: Sept 8, 2018

Week 1: Sept. 1, 2018

While most of us thought that the four mono-color ensembles that were revealed in August were just illustrations of the four colors, week 1 let us know the Ducks are not afraid to be bold. They went all-highlighter-yellow! This has become a common thing for them to do in the "preseason" when they have tended to use lots of yellow and black instead of green, which they tend to save for conference play.

A Duck Decade

The Oregonian has made a nice, simple—and long—photo retrospective of each Oregon game uniform since the 2009 season. It corresponds with the Masoli Rose Bowl season till now.

My all-time favorites have been the early wings on shoulders from the Rose/Natty years of 2009-2011, paired with the O helmet.

But those years also corresponded to pretty dark colors, rather than the bright yellows and green of the last few years.

https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/sports/erry-2018/08/3a0ff4e1c4452/a-look-back-at-the-last-decade.html

The Annual new uniform reveal

I'm getting ready for both 2018 Ducktracker and Pac-12 tracker and the Oregon Ducks have graciously given us a full report on their new togs. Albeit, not the "story boards" that highlighted Mark Helfrich's last season 2 years ago.

I'm not going to go into too much detail because my Uni-watch "boss" Phill Hecken pretty much says it all on their always-great blog

https://uni-watch.com/2018/08/16/oregon-ducks-unveil-new-unis-with-huge-numbers/

Bottom line from my standpoint:

• Nice consistent look that as a graphic artist, it warms my heart to see the 4 basic colors all made right. 
• No extra details to get in the way! No piping, seams, wings, diamond plate etc.
• Marietta-style winged helmet back for all colors, not just the yellow/chrome (pretty much mostly the same)
• Somewhat noticeable number font (seriously this is all the media is focusing on since this is the only odd item to quack about) I like the tech looking font-its better than the slightly tech/blobby font last year.
• No other text/slogans on legs/collars like previous years
• No cute Duck anywhere
• Subtle school branding (O on hip and "Ducks" in VERY subtle "nameplate" over the heart are the only Oregon here besides the colors.
• I'm glad there is no gray/silver option and hope they keep it that way. The Ducks have always pulled out white/gray for special games and often have lost, so stick with green and yellow.
• The black uniform sports a green that is NEON and not the same green as the Apple Green set. I guess this is meant to be the "lights out" kinda uniform they will wear against UW/USC? The neon feels  bit too close to the Natty game neon vs. Auburn, though. Or the "grellow" vs. BYU in some low-level bowl in the early 00s.

For another take that mirrors my own:

https://www.addictedtoquack.com/2018/8/17/17698892/oregon-football-uniforms-2018-cristobal-hotness-bigass-numbers