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Chris McCain flashed a wide smile at the camera, pulled a hat from under the table and let the world in on where he’ll spend the next few years of his life.

“I choose the Ducks,” McCain said. “Oregon Ducks, baby.”

The highly sought senior linebacker, who starred at Northern Guilford last season before transferring to Central Carolina Sports Academy this year, committed to the Pac-10 powerhouse Ducks in front of a national television audience Thursday night on ESPNU’s Recruiting Insider. Scouting service Rivals.com rated the 6-foot-6, 205-pound McCain the 12th best linebacker in his class.

McCain had no shortage of scholarship offers after posting 97 tackles for the Nighthawks last season. He narrowed his choice to Oregon, Maryland and Cal in recent weeks. He mentioned on ESPNU playing Call of Duty on Xbox with Cal defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi on his visit there, joking that Lupoi “couldn’t handle me.”

But he said the deciding factor was “the relationship between the coaches and the players” at Oregon.

When the team was working out when I was there, the coaches stayed out the whole time and coached them through everything,” he said, mentioning Ducks sophomore quarterback Darren Thomas as a friend from his visits. He said Oregon’s coaches have told him they plan to play him at outside linebacker.

McCain starred at Page two years ago before transferring to Northern, where, along with safety Keenan Allen — who’s also seriously considering the Ducks, as are would-have-been Nighthawks Gabe King and James Scales — McCain helped lead the Nighthawks to a 10-1 record in their first varsity season.

He then joined up with the Northern basketball team and earned MVP honors in the 3-A championship victory that the Nighthawks would later forfeit for using two ineligible players.

“It’s going to be a challenge being so far from home,” McCain said, “but just looking at my future, Oregon is the best place for me.”

WEEK 4 STORYLINES:

* Eastern Guilford hosts Western Guilford in a battle of surprisingly winless teams. Both were playoff teams a year ago but have been held back by murderous schedules — the six teams they’ve lost to are a combined 16-2. Eastern shut out the Hornets on their home turf last year, 24-0.

* Southwest Guilford could silence any remaining doubters if it knocks off cross-town rival Andrews to move to 4-0. Even though the Red Raiders just got their first win last week, many will consider them the favorite based on track record — Andrews has beaten the Cowboys each of the last four years by seven points or less.

* Northeast Guilford (2-1) is in a less precarious position traveling to Reidsville than it was last year, when a 39-7 whipping at home dropped Northeast to 0-3 for the first time in head coach Tommy Pursley’s 16-year tenure. The Rams recovered to win eight of their next 10 and should give Reidsville a bigger fight this time around, though Reidsville (3-0) retains the benefit of the doubt having outscored its opponents 151-13 so far.

* Northwest Guilford at Northern Guilford and Page at Ragsdale should be two of the best, most emotional Guilford County games the rest of the way. Try to clone yourself and get to both.

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com