Florida LB Cecil Cherry commits to the Texas Longhorns

Instead of waiting until National Signing Day to make it official, Lakeland (Fla.) Victory Christian linebacker Cecil Cherry announced his commitment to the Texas Longhorns via Twitter on Monday evening:

PROUD TO ANNOUNCE MY COMMITMENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS #HookEm pic.twitter.com/yhWCFYlznG

— Cecil Cherry (@cecil__cherry3) December 15, 2014

A hard hitter with good quickness for his size, Cherry is an important get for the class because the Longhorns were in major need of a middle linebacker with the pending graduation of starter Steve Edmond and the poor play of junior back up Dalton Santos, who can't be counted on to contribute in a meaningful way moving forward.

Cherry had been pledged to Tennessee until December 8 before he decommitted in a move that had been brewing for weeks. First, Cherry visited Austin with a host of other Florida prospects for the West Virginia game in early November, called Texas his "dream school," sent out a series of Longhorns-related tweets that didn't play so well with the Volunteer faithful, then told 247Sports he was planning on opening up his recruitment once again.

The 6'0, 230-pounder is a consensus three-star prospect given a rating of 90 by 247Sports. In the national rankings, he's the No. 403 player in the country, the No. 11 inside linebacker, and the No. 57 player in Florida.

The news helped ease the sting of losing out on another middle linebacker target earlier on Monday when Indianapolis (Ind.) Lawrence Central's Darrin Kirkland committed to the Tennessee Volunteers over the Longhorns and numerous other programs.

Not long after, the highest-rated pledge in the class, Houston (Texas) Westfield offensive tackle Toby Weathersby, announced his decommitment in a major loss for the 2015 group.

With Cherry now officially in the fold, Texas remains at No. 19 nationally and No. 1 in the Big 12 in the 247Sports Composite team rankings after falling three spots due to the loss of Weathersby.