Texas A&M Football: 3 implications of WR Ainias Smith’s return in 2022

Earlier this week, one of the most important players on the Texas A&M football team announced that he’d be returning for his senior season in College Station. That player is Ainias Smith, Texas A&M’s swiss-army knife over the past few seasons. Here was his tweet announcing his return.

Admittedly, this isn’t the hottest scoop or the newest news — he tweeted this on Wednesday.

That said, it’s never too late to look into the implications of what this move means. After all, Ainias Smith has arguably been the team’s most consistent playmaker since arriving on campus in 2019. He can run the ball, receive passes, and return punts and kickoffs. He’s back and here’s what this means for A&M.

Implication No. 1: The Texas A&M football team will have one more experienced option at runningback

The sentence above may throw you off — Ainias Smith only rushed the ball eight times in 2021. Most of these rushes came by form of jet sweep. That said, Smith is just one season removed from a year where he rushed the ball 49 times.

The difference between those seasons? Devon Achane.

Achane came onto campus in 2020 and by the end of the season, he was RB2 for the Texas A&M football team. This forced Smith into more of a receiver role, which ultimately benefitted both players.

That said, RB1 in Isaiah Spiller is departing for the NFL Draft, which could open up some carries for Smith. It’s hard to think that Jimbo Fisher wouldn’t want to stick to a guy that he knows he could rely on in the past, at least to an extent.