Between now and national signing day on Wednesday, The Oregonian/OregonLive is profiling high school football players who are expected to sign with the Ducks.



Name: Tristen Wallace



Hometown: DeSoto, Texas



Position: Receiver



Twitter: @Official_Wall5



Height: 6-foot-3



Weight: 230 pounds



High school: DeSoto



2015 statistics: As dual-threat quarterback, Wallace threw for 2,167 yards with 12 touchdowns and eight interceptions and ran for 1,478 yards with 16 touchdowns.



Why Duck fans should be excited: Time was of the essence during Tristen Wallace's official visit to Eugene in December. Because he packed his weekend on the West Coast with stops at both UCLA and Oregon, each program needed to make their face time with the DeSoto, Texas, quarterback count.



Some recruits use their visits to be pampered even if they don't intend to take the program seriously. It wasn't so with Wallace who, starting in middle school, ran an uptempo offense modeled after Oregon's.



"For a lot of our kids, Oregon is 'the one' because that's what we do or try to do," said Todd Peterman, DeSoto's head coach who first met Wallace nine years ago. "So it 's a big deal when you get an Oregon (scholarship) offer.





Tristen Wallace committed to Oregon in December.

"He called me his first night in Oregon, after he and his father had visited, and he said it felt like home."



Wallace is one of the most intriguing members of the Ducks' 2016 recruiting class, which will be announced Wednesday, because he'll be calling home two different locations than expected.



In April, Wallace committed to then-reigning national champion Ohio State as a dual-threat quarterback rated the country's 10th-best "athlete," one who'd earned the respect of opposing coaches for being an "incredible kid with a huge upside," said Joey McGuire, the head coach at Cedar Hill High, a DeSoto rival that was one of few to slow down Wallace this fall by holding the Eagles without a touchdown for the first time in more than a decade. "Big, fast and physical. Tough to tackle these guys."



Ultimately even Ohio State couldn't keep hold of Wallace.

His commitment became tenuous early in the fall upon telling Peterman he saw himself in college as a receiver, a position he'd moonlighted at before using athleticism and size to overcome his raw skills in catching passes, rather than throwing them. Ohio State wanted Wallace to stick with quarterback and soon he was looking for new homes where he could play a new position.



His flip to Oregon on Dec. 13 drew headlines from Columbus to Eugene, which is not the kind of attention Wallace typically seeks, Peterman said.



"All-around exceptional kid, very humble," he said. "Doesn't make it about himself. He's not comfortable with that."



Tom Westerberg didn't want to project how Wallace would fare at receiver moving forward. He's only known Wallace as a quarterback who nearly knocked off his Allen Eagles -- the national powerhouse near Dallas that produced Kyler Murray, among others -- each of the past two seasons in the playoffs.



But for Westerberg, who in January left Allen to take over as coach and athletic director at a high school outside of Houston, those matchups left an impression, and not only because when Wallace "gets rolling he does a lot of things well."



"I just think when you look at a kid like that the overall type of kid he is, character-wise and athletic ability and leadership on a field, that you notice," Westerberg said. "When things don't go good, just his characteristics -- you can pinpoint pretty quick kids that maybe when the complaining is going on but, he's not that type of kid."



-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif