EUGENE -- Oregon Ducks freshman football players Tristen Wallace and Darrian Franklin have been barred from the UO campus and are under investigation in Lane County in connection with allegations of sexual assault, The Oregonian/OregonLive has learned.



The Lane County district attorney's office is investigating after receiving reports from both Eugene and University of Oregon police, DA Patty Perlow said.

In an email Craig Pintens, Oregon senior associate athletic director for marketing and public relations, said both players were "suspended indefinitely" by former coach Mark Helfrich in October and remain suspended.

Neither player has been charged with a crime, and further details of the alleged incident or incidents are unavailable because the investigation is ongoing.



However, in early October the university's Office of the Dean of Students restricted both players from all UO property, which includes any athletic facilities, and UO police interviewed Wallace as part of its investigation, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting. Horace Raymond, an Oregon assistant athletic director for player development, was present during the interview, according to the source.

Darrian Franklin

Neither Franklin nor Wallace could be reached for comment. Both remain listed on the team's online roster.



Neither player was mentioned in any of UO's in-house daily practice reports after Oct. 4. Ducks practices this season were closed to the public and media.



Both players redshirted in 2016 after arriving as highly rated recruits. A 6-foot-1, 215-pound linebacker from Downey, California, Franklin was one of the top 300 recruits in the 2016 class, according to Scout.com, and enrolled early at Oregon last January.



The 6-4, 235-pound Wallace flipped his commitment from Ohio State to Oregon before arriving as a wide receiver. 247Sports ranked him the country's No. 4 athlete in the 2016 class.





Tristen Wallace

They are the latest Ducks football players to have been investigated or charged with a crime in 2016 in a string of incidents that became a prominent storyline during Helfrich's final season as head coach.



-- In August, defensive end Torrodney Prevot was suspended indefinitely on the eve of the season opener after allegedly assaulting a former UO female student-athlete. He has since been been suspended by UO for two years after being "found responsible for a serious violation of the student conduct code, specifically domestic violence and gender based harassment," spokesman Tobin Klinger wrote. "He would be eligible to receive his degree only after serving the term of his suspension." Such a suspension refutes his post to social media on Dec. 19 that he had graduated and planned to play elsewhere in 2017 via the NCAA's graduate transfer rule.



-- Defensive lineman Austin Maloata, kicked off the team following a Nov. 13 arrest, was sentenced Dec. 14 to jail time and two years of probation after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree assault and a misdemeanor count of DUII.



-- Receiver Darren Carrington was accused of breaking a man's arm in late October. A Eugene police investigation has since been closed without any charges against the receiver.



-- Defensive end Eddie Heard was suspended indefinitely in early November after an arrest and later pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault. Heard remains around the UO football team, and was present for new coach Willie Taggart's introductory press conference.



-- Tight end Pharaoh Brown was accused of being involved in three past cases of violence in a November story by the Oregon Daily Emerald. Brown was never charged in any of the alleged incidents.

New UO coach Willie Taggart has said that violence against women, along with the use of drugs and guns, is "unacceptable" for players within his program.

"You can go to other programs where they're going to allow you to do those things but not here," he said during a Dec. 16 interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive. "It's going to be done here the right way. We're going to respect women, first and foremost, at all times. That's not -- there's no way around that. There's no, 'Give me a second chance' or anything. You got one chance."

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif