Is it just a matter of time until Taures Payne is a Wildcat?

Senatobia (Miss.) Northwest Mississippi C.C. defensive end Taures Payne knows he's enamored with Kentucky.

The only trouble is he's never visited the school.

Later this month the 6-foot-4, 265-pound defensive end will be in Lexington for the first time. If all goes well, he's got a pretty good idea of what he wants to do.

Payne's first offer was from Kentucky. Since that first offer, he's also landed offers from Maryland, UCF, FAU and others.

He admits that he's backed out of a few visits already. Kentucky is one trip he doesn't plan to back out of.

"I'm definitely going to visit Kentucky. I've made up my mind on that," Payne told Cats Illustrated on Wednesday morning.

Payne has a lot of positive feelings towards Kentucky because of how early they started recruiting him and because John Schlarman has done a good job of making the staff's case.

"They've been recruiting me since about the top of the year," Payne said. "But this is going to be my first time going up there (on June 21st). Coach (John) Schlarman, the offensive line coach, has been recruiting me. I was very excited to get that offer. I was truly blessed. I've been a fan of the program for a little while now so I'm pretty familiar with it.

"Coach Schlarman has been a pretty cool coach. He's not like the rest that will feed you stuff. He takes the time to see how you are and he shows genuine interest outside of football," Payne continued.

"They're recruiting me as a defensive end. They've said they're going to take two defensive linemen this year."

Payne said on a scale of 1-10 his interest in Kentucky is "a 10."

If the visit goes well and Kentucky is willing to accept his commitment, Payne has a pretty good idea of how things will play out.

"I definitely want to check it out before I make any final decisions, but yeah, I know I like Kentucky and seeing it before I make a choice is the big reason I want to go up there," he said.