The Oregon at Penn State game is a contrast of images and styles, but it will be decided the way games always are.
One side has a traditional uniform that never changes, an iconic look, celebrated by a frenzied crowd wearing a plain white tee, 106,000 voices roaring their chants into the night air. The other has flash and constant updates and variations., endless style and cool.
One is a traditional power with two consensus national championships and 13 undefeated seasons, a Big Ten power for over 30 years, since 1993. It's the school of Saquon Barkley and Franco Harris, Jack Ham and Micah Parsons.
The other is new money, a hipster, clever ads and a fancy offense, an upstart, a maverick, funded by a shoe dog with a long history of almost. In a way the two schools share that: In 32 seasons in the Big Ten the Penn State Nittany Lions have won the conference just four times, always good, stringing together 10-win seasons and Top Ten finishes, but so often finishing second or third to Ohio State and Michigan, the titans of the Midwest.
The game itself will be decided in the trenches, but in the week leading up to the game one school leans on their tradition, the legion of students in their plain white tees, camping out in front of the stadium to get the best seats, loud, crazed, passionate, a full-throated roar that starts a half hour before kickoff at jet engine intensity, a wave of sound and energy, mesmerizing.
The other drafts plays on a glass wall in secret, leans into its sports psychology power points, and unveiled a new shoe. But the game will be decided in the trenches. Neither school has played anyone in 2025. We can't really know how good they are, in the crucible of playing the best on the biggest stage.
Mummy mode.
— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) September 21, 2025
Presenting the @Nike Mummy Duck Vaporposite cleat. Created exclusively for Oregon Football. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/cRqFxhRL4b
Ironically, their early-season reputations are built on sand.
The shoe glows in the dark and features a Mummy Duck on the tongue, ultralight and ultra cool. Later this week, perhaps today, they'll reveal a matching uniform, perhaps Storm Trooper White to take back the night energy of Beaver Stadium, at least that's the intention.
But the game, like all games, will be won in the trenches, on which all the speed and athleticism are dependent. Nothing happens in football without blocking and tackling, big guys doing their jobs in relative obscurity. The Oregon offensive linemen will wear the same green shoes they've worn every game.
One school has a reputation for violent, physical football and a punishing running game. The other is dismissed as Nike flash and hype, but that is misdirection: The Ducks have 25 players over 300 pounds. One side or the other will dictate the game. The shoes just get everybody talking about it, as do the chants and the plain white tees.