Oklahoma football: OU gets another crystal-ball projection for 2024 No. 1 RB

Oklahoma football recruiting has picked up another crystal-ball projection for the player considered the No. 1 RB in the 2024 class, according to both 247Sports and On3 recruiting.

Sooners Wire, a sports website dedicated to the Oklahoma Sooners and affiliated with the USA Today network, is reporting that “while the noise that the nation’s number one running back recruit in the 2024 class (Taylor Tatum) could commit any day has died down, the predictions favoring Oklahoma have not.”

The intriguing and somewhat spiteful twist to Tatum’s recruitment is that Lincoln Riley and USC recently emerged as a major player working hard to lure the native Texan to the West Coast.

Early in the process of Tatum’s recruitment, Michigan was thought to be the lead player for his commitment. Then, in early June FanSided’s Saturday Blitz reported that USC had jumped ahead in the recruiting battle for Tatum’s services after he had made an official visit to the USC campus.

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All along, Oklahoma had been in the hunt thanks to the hard work and persuasive efforts put forth by OU running backs coach DeMarco Murray and also baseball coach Skip Johnson. A short time after visiting USC, Tatum attended OU’s big June recruiting event, the ChampU BBQ, where he was joined by a number of the Sooners’ top recruiting targets as well as some of the current Oklahoma commitments to the 2024 class. Johnson was on hand as well to talk with the dual-sport star about baseball opportunities with the Crimson and Cream.

Entering the month of July, Oklahoma already had a 100 percent crystal-ball projection from 247Sports to land Tatum’s commitment and a 65 percent chance from On3 Sports. This past weekend, the Sooners picked up another projection favoring the Sooners. This one from Brandon Holland of Rivals. What makes Holland’s future-cast prediction interesting is that he is the Texas Longhorns insider for Rivals, and Texas officials contend that the Longhorns already have the commitment of the No. 1 running back in the 2024 class in Jerrick Gibson.

Rivals and ESPN rank Texas’ Gibson as the top 2024 running back, while 247Sports and On3 favor Tatum in that spot.

Tatum doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to make a commitment decision. Sources close to the Sooner football program believe he will formalize his decision before the end of July. Oklahoma appears to be in the clear lead currently, but the longer it goes before the Longview, Texas, native announces his commitment, the more opportunity it gives other programs to undercut OU in the recruiting battle for the elite running back.