Texas DE target Ron Tatum to announce decision on Wednesday

Can the Texas Longhorns continue the program’s remarkable streak of recruiting wins against the Oklahoma Sooners?

Head coach Tom Herman and defensive line coach Oscar Giles will have a chance to do exactly that when Oklahoma City (Okla.) Putnam City defensive end Ron Tatum makes his college decision on Wednesday:

Horns247 is on site to live stream the announcement on Facebook.

The 6’4.5, 269 pounder is one of the elite strong-side defensive ends in the country, though he’ll likely move inside in college given that he already weighs close to 270 pounds and will be heavier once he arrives on the campus of his choice next year.

Texas is in the mix for Tatum, having made his top five on Saturday, along with home-state Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and TCU.

Though Tatum visited Austin back in February, the Sooners are considered the heavy favorite, having received his last unofficial visit in early April. Oklahoma also currently holds all 12 of his 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions.

Nine of those predictions have come in the last five days, with 247Sports National Recruiting Director Steve Wiltfong leading that recent flood of projections.

So while there is some cause for extremely cautious optimism, the odds of luring Tatum south of the Red River to join fellow Oklahoma product Casey Thompson at Texas aren’t particularly high unless something changes in the next 24 hours.

With that being said, Tatum isn’t planning on shutting down his recruitment entirely and there seems to be some buzz around the Longhorns on Wednesday morning:

Crabtree isn’t the only one hearing positive things for the Longhorns, as The Football Brainiacs are getting some good vibrations from both sides concerning the burnt orange and white:

As I noted yesterday, our sources on the Texas side continue to indicate that the Texas staff is confident they will land Ron Tatum later today. However, what has changed is our sources tell us that things on the OU side have become less certain about where they stand.

Tatum ranks as the nation’s No. 121 player, No. 5 strong-side defensive end, and the No. 4 player in Oklahoma, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.