Midpoint review 2022 (No Duck game)

With the Ducks off this weekend, at the exact midpoint of the regular season, I figured it would be a good time to take stock and look forward.

So far this season they have worn some really strong combos and spread the love around their main colors decently well. Here are the number of items (helmet, jersey, pants) worn in each color:

• Green: 5
• Yellow: 3
• White: 5
• Black/Nightmare:5

So my hope for the rest of this season would be that there would be a nice mix of green and especially yellow, against what would seem to be a slate of high-profile competition on national TV like Utah, UCLA, UW, OSU and possibly USC. The Ducks have 3 home and 3 road left. Next weekend is UCLA and we are getting the return of pink.

At this midpoint of last few years the Ducks tended to be a bit off balance, colorwise:

• In 2021, the first half was light on green and heavy on yellow
• In 2020's shortened season they again wore very little green
• 2019 saw very little yellow
• 2018 had complete mono the first 4 games and matching jersey/pants for ALL games except for the Redbox Bowl.

Stomping out disease uniforms

While its more than a  week until these hit the gridiron, Oregon announced its week 8 set for the huge UCLA game on October 22. As most people suspected, the Ducks  wear pink, and this is the third time they have worn pink in October to bring awareness to breast cancer, so here is a rundown of their past efforts linking fashion and disease:

October 22, 2022: Against UCLA

Week 6: October 8, 2022

The Eggshell returns! A personal non-favorite of mine is back, in a repeat of the exact set that the Ducks won at UCLA last season. For some reason all the pregame promo photos of this supposedly Nightmare Green set make it look like the details are actually black or very dark gray. Only a slight green sheen on the number and the helmet wings give this away as green. So I'm going to have to trust that this is the same as last season?

Since the Ducks have not won in Tucson in 11 years, I'm kinda afraid of the non-green/yellow curse for important road games. 

Week 5: October 1, 2022

Pac-12 After Dark this weekend is a colorful night under the lights. Oregon brings its full school colors out against Stanford. This green/green/yellow combo is relatively uncommon for the Ducks. Last time was Civil War 2013 and then you have to go back to single games in 2004 and 2005—all victories for seemingly its only other use.

Week 4: September 24, 2022

Pac-12 play begins with the Ducks traveling to always-difficult Pullman to play WSU. The Cougars are wearing their mono-anthracite, which the underdogs famously wore to beat the Ducks in 2018. That day Oregon wore silver/white/white so it was an elegant—if not boring—matchup.

This year the Ducks hope to avoid a repeat (thankfully ESPN Gameday crew is not in Pullman this year) and garner some road mojo by replicating their look from their 2021 trip to Ohio State with an all white set. That was the last time the Ducks went full stormtropper, and before that you have to go back to 2016 to find the last use of all-white. The little bit of green in this set will provide the onyl real color paired with the dark WSU set.

Week 3: September 17, 2022

For the BYU game Oregon wore its mono Nightmare Green uniform. Since they did not wear Nightmare Green jerseys last season, this is the first use with the diamond plate shoulders that debuted in 2021. This is also the first time since the 2019 Pac-12 Championship game victory that they have worn this combo, and they also wore this look with the chrome helmets in the 2020 Rose Bowl. They wore Nightmare Green helmets and pants twice last year paired with the "eggshell" jersey.

Week 2: September 10, 2022

Last weekend was a great uniform worn in a horrible game. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the mono-apple green in the future. 

This weekend the Ducks break out the yellow and black. This appears to be the first use of yellow helmet with solid black wings and facemask. And this exact combo is being used for the first time. There was the loss to Boise State in 2008 that used the dreaded "grellow" helmet which was kinda yellow but also had lots of dark green parts. 

It feels like yellow and black have been common the last decade or so, but this is only the second time since 2017, because Mario Cristobal used Nightmare Green instead of black most often. Almost always when the Ducks where a yellow helmet is is in a mono-yellow set or non-yellow jersey.