It seems like Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator vacancy has made its first impact on the recruiting trail. On Friday morning, high school teammates Malik Jefferson (five-star LB) and DeAndre McNeal (four-star WR/ATH) both committed Texas after being chased by the Aggies.

Jefferson in particular was a major target at a position of need for the Aggies, the top linebacker in Texas. While Texas A&M has been excelling in recruiting this cycle, with a top-five class with about six weeks until national signing day, some speculation that the lack of a defensive leader could take its toll.

The above tweet refers to the same Malik Jefferson that spurned the Aggies, as well as A&M commit Kyler Murray, a five-star quarterback.

Losing out on the two touted prospects to Texas, the Aggies’ spurned rival, is a major blow to Kevin Sumlin. Yesterday, we wrote that Sumlin taking his time on finding a coordinator was okay, as long as he found the right man for the job and it didn’t affect recruiting. While Sumlin still needs to find the right guy, it seems he can’t wait much longer.

The Aggies have been trotting out the “We Run This State” slogan this year, a shot at the Longhorns saying that A&M is the premier program in Texas. After losing two recruits to their primary recruiting rival, it looks like the Aggies are nowhere close to running Texas, especially considering the wildly successful seasons TCU and Baylor just had.

It’s not the end of the world for Texas A&M. They still have an impressive class lined up, have five-star defensive lineman Daylon Mack committed, as well as a slew of other four-star prospects. Given the whims of 18-year-old kids, the possibility of flipping a highly ranked defensive recruit before February is in the cards as well.

That goes the other way, too. Mack has been committed for a few months, but he still has an official visit scheduled with LSU in January. While Texas A&M’s class is impressive, it’s just as likely to be poached by rival coaches as the Aggies are to flip a recruit, perhaps even more so with no defensive coordinator to hold that side of the ball together.

The pressure is on now. A&M has three coaching vacancies at present, and Sumlin’s patience in filling them has quickly flipped from prudence to problematic. It might be time for Sumlin to crank up the volume and frequency of his phone calls to defensive coordinator candidates.