The Ducks went black and green this weekend, a combo that they have not worn since a 2017 week 5 victory. It's a good look that avoids being too dark with the apple green jerseys and a nice pop of yellow on the helmet wings. This exact combo has only been worn twice in the last 15 years., which is odd since Chip Kelly liked to combine green and black, but only once black/green/black.
All Lightning Yellow, all the time! This the first time the Ducks have gone mono-yellow since Mario's first year in 2018 when they won all three games they wore them in.
People often make fun of the "highlighter yellow" that Oregon has used, but this is only the 6th time in the last 15 years they have gone mono-yellow. And even though my record keeping only goes back to the late Bellotti days, the Ducks did not utilize all-yellow much before Chip Kelly (and Chip actually used very little yellow at all!). Typically when Bellotti went with yellow he had the then-standard green helmet. And when the Ducks used old-school yellow helmets and pants in the great "Pre-Nike Rebrand of 1998" they uses green or white jerseys.
The Ducks broke many a bad streak last weekend, with their victory at Ohio State!
This game was the first time a white helmet had been used since Mark Helfrich's final year in 2016. That year the Ducks wore them four times and lost three of those games. In the Helfrich-era, which was the heyday of white helmets, they wore them 11 times and lost 5 times.
The most memorable losses while wearing white helmets were in big games:
So I hope that this represents a new era where white helmets in big games are lucky.
This was the biggest regular season game the Ducks have played in a long time! And arguably the biggest regular season WIN since they beat Michigan at home 15 years ago! You can see my post from last season about what Oregon wore in previous meetings with the Buckeyes by clicking here.
The Ducks went mono-white or "Storm Trooper" which is a clean look, with the "new" white helmet that was not teased over the summer. The last time they wore all white was a big road upset victory against #11Utah in late 2016. And they have memorably worn this combo in past victories at USC and Washington, so there is good vibes when they wear this against Pac-12 opponents.
But...in non-conference, big games, the luck was not so strong....Since the Ducks have had few occasions (if any) to be the "home team" against OSU, they have worn white a fair amount and lost them all. Regular readers of this blog will have seen various posts about unlucky combos and they usually include a lot of white/silver. The last two recent losses to OSU have seen the Ducks wear white helmet and jerseys.
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| Sept. 11, 2021. USA Today photos |
In the 2021 offseason the Ducks did a refresh of their uniform set. It was not groundbreaking and the colors (Apple Green, White, Yellow) stayed the same for the most part. No word on special uniforms (like nightmare green) or throwbacks. The main differences are on the shoulders, where an odd mix of various eras are now represented. The "diamond-plate" look of mid 2000s paired with the techy, and subtly-shiny pattern of "wings" from the Mariota days in the mid-2010s is the best way to describe it.
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| Dennis Dixon Diamond Plate circa 2006 |
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| Marcus Mariota Wings circa 2013 |
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| Sept. 4, 2021. |
In week 1 at home, the Ducks wisely used one of the their classic combos of yellow/ apple green/yellow which is arguably their best look historically. (Last year they never used this combo, and the last time it was worn was in a Redbox Bowl win in December 2018. In 2019, they did use the darker green jersey paired with yellow hat/pants.)
In the 2021 opener, the yellow and green paired with he white and red of Fresno State made for a colorful and crisp matchup. The apple green jerseys have much more subtle shoulders where the pattern is more a difference in shiny texture than color. The white and yellow jerseys have way more contrast.
All season long I compile a spreadsheet of Duck uniform combos and it goes back to 2008 at the moment. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_lb00nuVdEmXTeZYcZZN_6QPksNCFjX3J6dnuTlFaXI/edit?usp=sharing
