High school career

Rouse attended Lincoln High School in his home town of Tallahassee, Florida, and was teammates with Antonio Cromartie until his sophomore year. As a senior, he had 608 receiving yards and eight touchdowns, for an average of 20.1 yards per catch. He was a ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

'' All-American and invited to the

U.S. Army All-American Bowl The All-American Bowl is a high school football all-star game, held annually at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Typically played in January, the All-American Bowl is played between all-star teams representing the eastern and western United S ...

, where he had five receptions for 29 yards and 55 yards in punt returns. Regarded as a five-star recruit by '' Rivals.com'', Rouse was ranked as the No. 2 wide receiver prospect in his class behind only Patrick Turner. He once declared that he felt ready to jump straight from the high school level to the NFL. He was heavily recruited out of high school and signed with the Florida State Seminoles, over scholarship offers from Alabama, Texas, Miami (FL), and Florida.

College career

During Rouse's sole NCAA season, he was in the Seminoles'

starting lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' o ...

at the 2006 Orange Bowl against

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

and finished the season with 6 receptions for 114 yards and one touchdown as a true freshman. Rouse then transferred to UTEP, where he sat out the 2006 season, due to NCAA transfer rules. Rouse later transferred to Concordia College, Selma.

Professional career

Rouse worked at the

Troy University Troy University is a public university in Troy, Alabama. It was founded in 1887 as Troy State Normal School within the Alabama State University System, and is now the flagship university of the Troy University System. Troy University is accredi ...

Pro Day in March 2011 in hope of being drafted. measuring in at almost 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, with a 40 time reported to be in the 4.4 range. One scout told me Rouse worked out well and excelled at catching the ball. "If you didn't know anything about his whole story, you'd say he's kind of interesting," the scout said. "But it's kind of a tale of squandered talent, judging from where all he has been." Rouse was undrafted in the

2011 NFL Draft The 2011 NFL Draft was the 76th installment of the annual NFL Draft, where the franchises of the National Football League select newly eligible football players. Like the 2010 draft, the 2011 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York C ...

. He was signed by the Omaha Nighthawks as an undrafted free agent on August 25, 2011. He was later released without seeing playing time with the Nighthawks. He was later signed to the Calgary Stampeders' practice roster on October 11, 2011 where he spent two weeks before being released. He was re-signed during the following off-season on February 22, 2012. He was later one of the first three signings by the expansion Ottawa Redblacks on November 27, 2013. He was released by the Redblacks on July 31, 2014.

References

External links

Ottawa Redblacks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rouse, Fred 1985 births Living people Players of American football from Tallahassee, Florida American football wide receivers Calgary Stampeders players Florida State Seminoles football players UTEP Miners football players Concordia College Alabama alumni Ottawa Redblacks players