Is hard-hitting LB Cecil Cherry a silent Texas commit?

Well, that escalated quickly.

While the Texas Longhorns were clearly surging in the recruitment of Tennessee Volunteers linebacker commit Cecil Cherry after the hard-hitting 247Sports four-star prospect gushed about head coach Charlie Strong following his visit for the West Virginia and then declared the Longhorns to be his "dream school" to Scout, things weren't expected to happen this fast.

A visit back to Knoxville seemed likely to give the Volunteers a chance to make up some ground again, but it seems that won't happen after Cherry sent out a series of Texas-related tweets on Tuesday morning and then commenced to send out another "Hook em" and retweet virtually every mention of the Longhorns for the rest of the day.

That evidence could be written off as a young person popping off on Twitter, but there are some other comments and developments that are impossible to ignore.

For instance, the industry certainly took notice of Cherry's tweets and comments, as 19 predictions have come in to the 6'0, 230-pounder's 247Sports Crystal Ball, 18 of them on Tuesday after the flurry of tweets.

Cherry also told 247Sports that is planning on decommitting from the Volunteers. For what it's worth, 247Sports still lists Cherry as a Tennessee commit.

And he told a person who follows Texas recruiting that the staff of the school he will sign with already knows about his plans, which apparently include an announcement on National Signing Day.

So calling him a silent Texas commit doesn't take much reading between the lines and, assuming it is true, it's a fact that will likely become one of the more poorly-kept secrets on the Longhorn interwebs in the coming weeks, especially if Cherry continues his current tweeting habits apace.

Here's to a silent Let's Ride, then, with the official tweet scheduled for February 5, 2015.