Texas A&M football's high-risk 2026 recruiting strategy suffers first casualty

Texas A&M football recruiting has had a really solid outlook so far in the class of 2026. The Aggies have the attention of some of the nation's top recruits, and they've been hard at work to bring some high-quality talent into the fold.

They've already done so with some pretty illustrious names. Aaron Gregory and Jordan Carter, both out of Georgia, committed to the Aggies after the big win over LSU last fall. The Ags recently picked up a verbal commitment from Jermaine Kinsler, a highly-coveted defensive lineman out of New Jersey.

You may notice, though, that everyone I've named is an out-of-state player. That's because the Aggies are in the strange position right now of possessing not one single commitment from an in-state talent at this point— highly unusual, and, if it were to hold throughout the entire cycle, really risky. That risk just got shown for what it is in an unfortunate turn of events today.

Texas A&M football loses DL commit Trashawn Ruffin to Bill Belichick and North Carolina

The Aggies just lost a commitment from North Carolina defensive lineman Trashawn Ruffin, who flipped to the in-state Tar Heels following a strong push from Bill Belichick and his staff.

This is the kind of thing you have to expect when you're going after big names from out of state. You won't be able to hold on to every single player you get commitments from, especially when the big time in-state power starts making a hard charge at them.

This is a gut punch for the Aggies' class, as Ruffin was holding down the middle of the defensive line. The Aggies will need to look elsewhere at defensive tackle, it looks like. Luckily, there are plenty of options available around the country and a lot of time left to work with in the cycle.