Week 5: September 30, 2023

The high-flying Ducks hit the road against a struggling Stanford. This matchup has been great the last 15 years and a bit scary for Duck fans. The last time UO went to Palo Alto in 2021 as a favorite they lost a  heartbreaker. Check out this great recap of the recent rivalry!

A nice classic combo of green-white-green. They have worn similar most every year, with Apple green appearing since 2015 and darker green the standard before then. This is the first time this season with green pants. Second time using this helmet.

The last time they wore this combo was a week 9 win at Cal in 2022. In 2021 they wore this combo in a loss at Utah. In 2020 it was their Pac-12 Championship victory ensemble. In 2019 they wore this combo at Stanford.

Week 4: September 23, 2023

For their highly-anticipated home game vs Deon Sanders & Co. Colorado, the Ducks opted for a black and green combo. While it's a decent uniform, I question why so much black vs. a team that wears black a lot-especially helmets and pants. Let's hope that Colorado goes for all white like their game vs. TCU (but hope that the outcome for CU is different.)

The black helmet with carbon fiber wings appears to be the same as game 1. Black pants worn for the first time since last season's game 2. The last time they wore this black/green/black combo was a week 4 game in 2021. Before that you have to go back to 2017 and 2011 for the only other times this combo has come up.

The uniform reveal included "heat activated color changing" cleats paired with real chameleon! which seem cool but are just a Nike marketing stunt.

Week 3: September 16, 2023

Against Hawaii, Oregon opts for a really bright and colorful combo. I'ma  huge fan of when they use their green and yellow, and even more so when it is not in mono. This green-green-yellow is not a common combo, and this appears to be only the second time they have worn it since Civil War 2013 (dark green helmet though). the most recent was vs. Stanford last year.

Week 2: September 9, 2023

For their first road trip of the season—to Texas Tech—the Ducks went all white with chrome helmets. 

This is the first chrome helmet since the 2020 season (Rose Bowl in January and later game 5). The chrome helmet was first worn famously in the 2012 Rose Bowl. But they were a very common thing in the Taggart and Cristobal years. They wore them five times in the 2017 season; three times in 2018; and twice in 2019.

Chrome with mono white under was a pretty common scheme in those years and they wore this exact look seven times in just the 2107, 2018 and 2019 seasons. And the last 2 years this has been the most common road jersey/pant combo.

In the last few years, gray/silver and white has not been the luckiest for big games or OOC games, but the road victory against Ohio State in 2021 hopefully put that to rest. Thankfully the current white jerseys have a good amount of green accents to offset the curse of non-school-colors.

Carbon Fiber Returns

As I mentioned in my weekly post about week 1, the Ducks wore a carbon fiber item for the first game in a long time. The game featured a matte black helmet with carbon fiber wings. This item looks to be a new helmet variation. The closest you can get to this is the Polynesian version from 2020 that had dark green/black helmet with very subtle black patterned wings.

Black helmets have become a common part of Oregon's uniform of late, but carbon fiber usually made appearances as the base helmet shell. It first appeared during the magical 2010 season and was a common element throughout the Mariota years and pretty much stopped being used after the 2014 season.

The Oregon company that got it started was called Hydro Graphics, and interestingly the first game that the carbon fiber shell appeared in was game 3 vs. Portland State—the same opponent as today's game.

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2010/10/glamorizing_college_football_h.html

Here are some great examples of carbon fiber used on helmets:

2010 vs Portland State: The first time it appeared

2010 Civil War : a classic game that sent the Ducks to the NCG!

2011 National Championship Game vs Auburn

2012 game vs Stanford: Ranked #1 they lost to #14 Stanford

2012 vs. Fresno State

2013 vs Washington

2015 National Championship game vs Ohio State: seemingly the last time they have worn carbon fiber wings