Oregonian: UO staying with existing uniforms

John Hunt

Rumors of a new Oregon uniform design have been flying around all season, but the Ducks won't be breaking out any new jerseys today.  Oregon and Nike, for marketing purposes, tend to unveil uniforms in front of national television audiences -- as Virginia Tech did Thursday of last week when it wore orange-shouldered, Nike-designed jerseys. The Florida Gators wore their orange-shouldered version two days later while defeating Georgia.  Today's Oregon game is a regional ABC broadcast (the final two regular season games will be on Fox Sports Net), not quite the stage the Ducks would want.   Remember, the Nike-sponsored band uniforms were brought out for the Michigan game in 2003.  Paul Swangard, managing director at Oregon's Warsaw Marketing Center, said most jersey designs -- like most shoe designs -- never see the light of day.  A photo of one such jersey was making the rounds on the Internet this week, but that seems to be an early prototype.  Expect a new look from Oregon for its bowl game and possibly another one before that. Swangard offered a hint as to what that might look like.  "That Florida uniform looked awfully familiar," he said.  

Water boys: While California was dunking its footballs in trash cans full of water this week to prepare for the elements today at Autzen Stadium, the Oregon Ducks were doing their usual preparation with the normally damp footballs. "The balls we end up using in practice, if it rains in practice, are much worse than any balls we'd use in a game. They get heavier, they get slicker," coach Mike Bellotti said. "We'd like to make sure it's about the same as what we'd face, and I think it always tends to be worse because we would not rotate as many balls into a practice as you'd rotate into a game.   "And we would not have an official standing there holding a towel over it, keeping the ball dry until it was snapped."  Not only has Cal not played on a rainy day this season, but the most inclement weather the Bears have encountered was in a night game against Washington State two weeks ago in Berkeley, where it was 59 degrees and clear.  There might be something to the moisture factor: Cal has not won in Eugene since Halloween in 1987 -- before Ducks running back Jeremiah Johnson celebrated his first birthday.  

Homecoming: Oregon's game captains today will be four from the Bay Area: quarterback Dennis Dixon, receiver Demetrius Williams, safety J.D. Nelson and linebacker Anthony Trucks. "The Bay Area always has been for us a very good recruiting ground," Bellotti said. "We're dependent on that, as the closest major population area other than Seattle or Portland."  It's also a battleground for talent between Bellotti and Cal coach (and former UO offensive coordinator) Jeff Tedford, who has vowed to keep as much Bay Area talent as possible from leaving