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)