The Ducks host the James Madison Dukes in their first-ever Playoff home game.
Thankfully the Ducks go back to school colors for this matchup. Hopefully that bodes well for further playoff games! First time they have worn yellow wings on a helmet (I think this is my favorite helmet this season). Last time they went green/green/yellow was 2023 and 2022, but you have to go back to 2013, 2005, and 20024 for the only other times before that. They are undefeated in this combo.
The Ducks traveled to Seattle. Unbelievably, they wore a combo that has not been worn since 1998! Yellow, white, green. A classic of the pre-Nike rebrand Belotti/Brooks years. The model for the set is Akili Smith HJr., who is the son of the famous Akili Smith from the late 1990s teams!
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| Akili Smith Sr. from late 1990s |
Oregon vs USC, with Gameday in town! Oregon uses a combo last seen in the Big-10 championship game last year. This time with black wings on green helmet instead of silver. This is another unusual combo that—before 2024—was last seen several times in 2006-2008.
The last times the Ducks have gone white/green/white were: 2015 win against Cal; 2014 Pac-10 championship against Arizona; 2010 Rose Bowl loss to tOSU.
I'l be honest that the marble helmet is cool, but too subtle and the green stripes seem random paired with the green and yellow jersey. I think a green and yellow stripe would have been better. I typically dislike white paints under darker jersey, but the look was saved by matching pant to helmet to create a "sandwich look."
The Ducks travel to Iowa and played the Hawkeyes for the first time since 1994. Green-white-green which is good since Iowa is a black and yellow team. This combo has been used for several years running, but the white wings on green helmet is new! And this snaps a stretch of 8 weeks where the Ducks wore only black or white jerseys. We haven't seen yellow since week 3.
Two-thirds of the Duck season is over and it's a bye week so I thought it would be a good time to examine trends and try to predict the end of the season.
A long-teased uniform this week against Wisconsin. The Ducks salute Oregon's hippie culture and Grateful Dead concerts held at Autzen Stadium in the past. Some schools play up their military connections, but in Eugene it just makes sense to play up their tie-dye! And Madison, Wisconsin is probably the other most granola-munching of the Big-10, so it's appropriate to wear it against them.
Read Phil Hecken's roundup about it https://uni-watch.com/2025/10/20/oregon-to-become-grateful-ducks-this-saturday/
This is the 5th game in a row where either black or white is the dominant color, and it's been since week 3 that ANY yellow has been present. With Iowa, Minnesota and USC being the next 3 opponents, I cant see much yellow being used against that very golden group. First mono-black set since their win last season against tOSU.
A UO history lesson on the connections:
A week after a tough loss at home to Indiana (the Ducks first ever Big10 conference loss!), the Ducks flew east to play Rutgers for the first time ever.
The Ducks went Stormtrooper this week, for the first time since 2022. The last few years they have gone chrome helmet and all white, which is a good look but not strictly Stormtrooper. The black wings on white marble (shell is from Shoeduck ensemble) helmet is a first.
The Ducks have had some memorable Stormtrooper looks the last 15 years. Very few have been hum-drum games-mostly historic wins and some historic losses!:
Oregon returned home from their Penn State victory and a week off to a hot Indiana team as well as College Game Day on campus! The teams could combine for a very Christmasy look with their official colors of red, green and yellow. Oregon and Indiana have only played three times before, and their last meeting was a stunning #24 Oregon home loss in 2004, which repeated itself in 2025!
This year the Ducks opted to wear a very unique combo of green-black-green. The only other times were in 2006 and 2007! The helmet is basically the same as last game but with apple green paired with silver wings.
With Oregon off this week, I thought I'd look back at various single-game special uniforms they have worn the last decade+ (Since I started tracking the Ducks in fall 2015. My criteria for this is that it typically has some storytelling element and is made up of completely new parts. I'm not including any of the "throwbacks" since they typically wear parts of those on multiple weeks. I'm also not including the uniforms that were worn sparingly but repeatedly like the eggshell and the blurry melted crayon yellow/black from 2016 which had no "story". But I am judging the various cancer uniforms, including the 2024 cancer uniform—since it had a story— even though the jersey was reused. So these typically were worn once and centered around a theme.
Don't get me wrong, I love flags and history, and in isolation the idea for this throwback-ish uniform is good. But during a down year against your most important rival-ouch! And all the state-seal-on-blue flags are horrible! Why celebrate that.
Whiteout for Penn State and visiting Oregon. The Ducks went black and white for second week in a row.
Even though they made a big deal about the "Mummy Duck" cleats and have an arm sleeve that looks like mummy wrap, the parts appear to be off the shelf from last season! Helmet looks like the matte black with matte silver wings from four games last season, and the jersey and pants look just like last year's versions.
Black was tied with green as their most common helmet last season. The last time they wore this colorway was last season at Wisconsin and again in 2023. If you don't count Nightmare Green as black, this is their 6th time wearing this combo ever, which seems kinda low.
UO and PSU have only played five games in history—two times in modern Duck times (both neutral sites)— with Oregon winning the most recent. Those last two games were pretty memorable: 1995 Rose Bowl and 2024 Big 10 Championship. Here is how those matchups looked:
With the Ducks and Beavers—teasing their uniforms early for the Civil War—we got a mostly black and white game, with the Ducks ironically being the most black (actual game photos make it look more dark gray). I love a good color-on-color Civil War—and think most CFB rivalry games should be that way if possible.
I'll update with real game pics, but here is the matchup:
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| Register Guard photos https://www.registerguard.com/picture-gallery/sports/college/football/2025/09/20/oregon-ducks-oregon-state-beavers-football-rivalry-photos-civil-war/86265730007/ |
