Junior-college linebacker commits to Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After Kentucky’s season-ending loss to Louisville, head coach Mark Stoops listed outside linebacker as a position that needed improvement in the offseason.

Saturday night he added one reinforcement to the position with the commitment of three-star junior-college outside linebacker/defensive end Jordan Bonner for the 2016 recruiting class, a source confirmed to The Courier-Journal. As a freshman at Northeast Oklahoma A&M, Bonner totaled 37 tackles with seven sacks in nine games. He would join UK after the spring semester at Northeast Oklahoma.

Bonner, who committed while on an official visit at UK, is rated as the No. 10 junior-college outside linebacker by the 247Sports Composite ranking, which averages the ratings of the four major recruiting services. He also boasted scholarship offers from Tennessee, Nebraska, Louisville and others.

Kentucky ranked 107th nationally with 17 sacks this season. The UK outside linebackers accounted for just four of those sacks.

“We really took some lumps at outside backer,” Stoops said after the loss to Louisville. “And you saw that today in the perimeter. And we've got to do a better job of containing the football.”

Email Jon Hale atjahale@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter@JonHale_CJ.