The Curse of Grey pants?

If you have watched Oregon football for the past decade, you will have noticed that Oregon tends to experiment "a bit" with colors and styles. Sometimes those styles work great visually like the wings on shoulders and helmets; but sometimes they tend to be associated with bad losses/seasons. "Grellow" helmets is all you need to know!

On this blog I have already tallied what the Ducks wear during their losses since 2019:

2009-2015 losses

2015-2019 losses

Check out my spreadsheet of combos going back to 2008

But, the subject of this post (a few days after a bad loss to Cal while wearing "wolf grey") is "Are Grey Pants Cursed?" And the answer is not really.  If the grey pants are worn by the likes of Marcus Mariota and LaMichael James in the Chip Kelley years pre 2015, then they are fine, but pretty much every time since 2015 they lost!

Ever since the 2009 season, when they started to wear grey they are actually 15-7! BUT, the vast majority of those wins come in the golden years of Chip Kelly when they wore a lot of grey. But in the five years since, the Ducks are 0-4 in grey pants. All four of those losses coincide with pairing grey with practically NO green/yellow.

So the takeaway is for the Ducks to be good in grey pants, they need to....have a Heisman-finalist....and/or also pair them with good amounts of yellow, green and black. Stay away from mono-grey and silver/white.

Results when Oregon has work grey/silver pants the last decade:

(Note: I did NOT include the really dark grey, that bordered on black, from 2016)

2020: Week 5 "Wolf Grey" Loss at Cal

AP photo

Week 5: Dec 5, 2020

The December 5 game at Cal brings the second new uniform of the short 2020 season. But what is notable is that it also brings "wolf grey" out for the first time! It's an attractive set that—if I may be kind— calls to mind the white/grey set that the Ducks wore in the 2010 Civil War that clinched a National Title game appearance:

2010 "Civil War" Win

But on the flipside...As soon as it was revealed on twitter, the comments went to the Duck's rather meager results when wearing grey/silver (especially pants). Like losing while wearing the "Lewis & Clark" uniform and during two National Championship game losses: 

2016 "Lewis and Clark" uniform Loss

2011 Natty Loss

2015 Natty Loss

Let's hope that they can sidestep the jink of this color combo. They did win at Washington in white/silver last season.

You can see my retrospectives about Oregon's LOSSES, especially when wearing white, grey and silver here:

2009-2015

2015-2019

Read more about the 2020 uniform here:

https://247sports.com/college/oregon/LongFormArticle/Oregon-Ducks-football-uniforms-Cal-Nike--156032313/#156032313_1

(Photo: Twitter: @OregonFootball)

Week 4: Nov 27, 2020

The now-nameless game vs. Oregon State brought out the color-vs color matchup! But they picked the most colorful hues in the box this time! Thankfully both teams looked like they had gotten the hi-viz uniforms at a hunting supply store, since the Willamette Valley fog was dense! 

Oregon in mono-highlighter with chrome lids vs. the mono-orange Beavers with black lids. Oregon's combo of chrome-yellow-yellow makes its first appearance since 2014 win against Michigan State. This chrome helmet appears to be quite similar to the 2020 Rose Bowl helmet, but instead of the nightmare green wings, it looks like solid black since the rest of the yellow parts use black as accent color.

Week 3: November 21, 2020 "Ohana"

The Ducks pulled out their first "themed" uniform of the season. It's an homage to almost-black, neon green, and Polynesia. It's the first special uniform since September 2017, when they had an anti-cancer one-off uniform. This is also the first mono-black set since week 3 of 2018. Loyal readers might remember the 2016 season (4-8), when each week revealed uniforms that were wildly different and usually came with  a "story." This has the feel of those days, but albeit more subtle and, honestly, merchandized by Nike stores.

 

Duck Territory does a great job describing it, so I won't bother repeating it.

Week 2: November 14, 2020

 

Week 1: November 7, 2020

 

Nightmare Green to start the 2020 season!

2020 has been a nightmare for most, and Oregon is banking on their good luck in their Nightmare Green uniforms. This Saturday's initial game vs. Stanford will sport the dark green jerseys and pants, with the yellow helmets.

Going back 11 years of my own records, they have not worn this combo of yellow/green/green since 2009.

(Photo: Facebook: GoDucks)

https://247sports.com/college/oregon/LongFormArticle/Oregon-Ducks-football-uniforms-Nike-Stanford-Cardinal-154264902/#154264902_1

Checkout my 11-years worth of uniform combo spreadsheet