Sting Factor: Impact of Gunnell's decommitment on Texas A&M?

Every time a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local, regional and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each de-commitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.

MORE: Who are the contenders to land Gunnell?

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

Class of 2019 Rivals100 quarterback Grant Gunnell had been committed to Texas A&M since last summer, but on Tuesday night, he chose to de-commit from the Aggies. The decision came after a number of programs had begun recruiting him again in the wake of the transition from Kevin Sumlin to Jimbo Fisher.

With a visit schedule beginning to take shape, Gunnell will be a popular target of many teams. He picked up an offer from Ohio State earlier in the day, which from a timing perspective might be more coincidental than anything, but may have played a part in him realizing that he has a number of top offers to consider besides A&M.

Had Gunnell done this later in the recruiting calendar, the sting factor would have gone way up. He's obviously one of the better quarterbacks in this class and losing him hurts, but having 358 days to find another quality player negates a lot of the pain. Adding a last-minute quarterback to the 2018 class, James Foster, helps take the pain away some, too.

It doesn't look like anyone else intends to follow Gunnell and de-commit, and it doesn't appear that anyone has lost interest due to his decision. So it's a matter of A&M finding another quarterback (probably not hard) of equal caliber (that's a little harder).

Sting Factor: 5

Losing Gunnell heading into the spring is a little bit of a bummer on the heels of a pretty successful run with recruits leading up to National Signing Day. At the Aggies' most recent junior day event, they landed commitments from Rivals250 wide receiver Kam Brown and top cornerback prospect Bobby Wolfe.

A&M was able to reel 2018 Rivals250 prospects Leon O’Neal and Bobby Brown back into the fold on National Signing Day, so should A&M continue to recruit Gunnell, it seems capable of knowing what to do to rekindle a prospect’s interest.

What will be watched closely going forward is how his decision impacts that of Rivals100 St. Pius X teammate Jalen Curry, who is also one of his closest friends. Curry had been considered a lean to A&M before his prior commitment to Florida State. He backed off his pledge once Fisher was hired at A&M, but now there is obvious speculation that the Aggies are back in a good position to recruit him.

Sting Factor: 5

You always have a higher sting factor when it’s a quarterback and the 2019 class is not loaded with talented signal callers. He’s not a dual-threat like Jimbo Fisher prefers so I’m sure the Aggies will find a fit they like, but being a highly ranked kid from Texas, this stings a bit as it hurts momentum.

Sting Factor: 8