Add a new name to the Texas recruiting mix

Just about every Texas Longhorn fan in the country – or for that matter, anyone who follows college football recruiting – has heard of Tallahassee (FL) Lincoln wide receiver Fred Rouse. The five-star playmaker is rated as the top pure receiver in the country and he’s got schools from all over America, including Texas, in hot pursuit.

So, it’s understandable that Rouse gets a lot of the headlines around the Lincoln program. But there’s another prospect from Lincoln that Longhorn fans need to know about.

Introducing Kerry Bonds. A 6-foot-3, 232-pound defensive end, Bonds recently caught the eye of the Texas coaching staff when UT assistant Bobby Kennedy stopped by Tallahassee to watch film.

“Actually, a couple of weeks ago, when the coaches came down to see Fred Rouse, I was at the school that day. We didn’t have school but I had gone up there to talk to our coaches,” said Bonds. “The Texas coach was there and he told my coach he really liked me and he’d talk to his coach about me.

“Then they were talking to our college liaison, coach (Tony Collins), and he was telling me that they really like me. Now I’m trying to see what they’re going to do with me as far as an offer and a visit.”

Bonds, who sports a 4.6 40-yard dash time, has yet to pick up an offer from the Texas coaches, but he was told that they wouldn’t bring him in for a visit if he didn’t have a scholarship available, and Bonds is supposed to set up a trip to Austin in the near future.

“So I suppose that I have an offer. If not right now, then very soon,” he said.

Along with Texas, Bonds is looking at visiting Alabama, Maryland, Clemson, South Carolina and maybe Michigan State. He was looking at Florida as the only in-state school, but he said he hasn’t heard from anyone in Gainesville in a while so they’ve dropped down his list.

He said and Rouse have thrown around the idea of playing same school, but it’s not an issue that’s going to make or break either of their decisions.

“We’ll probably try to come in (to Austin) at the same time,” Bonds said. “Early in the season, we had actually talked about going to the same place but during the season we’ve been focusing on our own campaign. But we still talk off and on about seeing which colleges we want to go to. Of course, Fred has offers from everywhere.”

Orangebloods.com will have much more on Bonds in this week's Inside the War Room.