Houston Offers Mineola’s Anderson Twins + Separate Offers Follow From Louisiana Tech, Illinois

Mineola junior offensive tackles Austin and Riley Anderson became the second and third players in the East Texas Class of 2016 to reach double-digit college football scholarship opportunities with an offer from Houston late Thursday evening.

And that was followed by the sibling each receiving a separate offer on Friday. Riley Anderson pulled down an offer from Louisiana Tech, while Austin Anderson was officially targeted by Illinois.

The linemen acknowledged the teams' interest Friday via their Twitter accounts. All 22 combined scholarship options -- 11 for each brother -- have come in a 17-day span.

Austin (6-4, 289) and Riley Anderson (6-5, 288) join Nacogdoches safety Brandon Jones as the only players in the junior class with 10 or more offers. Jones has 34.

Houston is the twins' fourth in-state football opportunity. It joins North Texas, Texas State and Texas Tech as an interested school.

The duo also share out-of-state offers from Arkansas State, Cincinnati, Missouri, Northwestern, Southern Miss and Tulsa.

Schools should not get too comfortable with the idea of landing both twins as a package deal. While the twins certainly entertain the idea of play college football together, both told ETSN.fm in an interview last week that they are open to signing with different programs.

“We’ve talked about it and I’m going to make my own decision,” Austin Anderson said in the interview. “Riley is going to do the same. If it happens to be the same place, that’s awesome. But if not, we’ll just move on with our lives and do it that way.”

Houston opened its brand new TDECU Stadium last season and finished the campaign with an 8-5 record. It came back from a 25-point deficit to upend Pittsburgh, 35-34, in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth to wrap up the year.

The Cougars have a bit of East Texas flavor already.

Former John Tyler star Greg Ward is expected to be the team's starting quarterback in 2015 after a solid sophomore season, John Tyler's Tyus Bowser is expected to be a part of the linebackers corps through 2016 and Lufkin's Tomme Mark will be a senior on the defensive line.

Louisiana Tech, coached by Skip Holtz, competes in Conference USA and finished with a 9-5 record in 2014, which culminated with a 35-18 win over Illinois in the Heart of Dallas Bowl at the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 26. The Bulldogs were able to sign Tyler Lee 2015 linebacker Brandon Durman earlier this month.

Illinois, coached by Tim Beckman, was 6-7 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten Conference a season ago. The Fighting Illini are one of nine schools from the Power 5 league to extend an offer to East Texas' class of 2016.

The Andersons and the rest of the nation's 2016 football prospects become eligible to sign with a program on Feb. 3, 2016.