Texas A&M continues to burn OU on the recruiting front

By Anthony Slater – Aslater@opubco.com - @anthonyVslater

The Cotton Bowl beatdown was an embarassing wake-up call for OU, revealing on a national stage what ails the program in the present, forcibly delivered by Texas A&M and its renegade Heisman winner.

But behind the darkened shades of recruiting, what that surging Big 12 runaway did to the Sooners in the weeks prior and days after may prove to be a more telling blow than what went down in Jerry’s World.

The Aggies have taken the nation, or at least the region, by storm the past 12 months, particularly on the recruiting front.

As of Monday afternoon, Texas A&M had secured 35 commitments for the 2013 class (15 of them rated four-star by Rivals). For perspective, Oklahoma (17) and Oklahoma State (20) only have 37 combined commits, with 10 of them rated as four-star on Rivals.

“There’s a clear choice now in this region,” A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said to ESPN’s David Ubben days before the Cotton Bowl. “There’s a certain guy who understands differences in leagues and differences in exposure.”

Because of the relatively close proximity, OU and A&M commonly dip into the same fertile recruiting ground. And head-to-head battles which once commonly come up Sooner crimson have shifted toward the trendy SEC newcomer.