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

Implication No. 3: The Texas A&M football team’s WR corps could finally see the breakout year they’ve been waiting for

Piggybacking off of the last slide, the Texas A&M football team hasn’t had a truly dominant season out of the wide receiver position. There are a handful of reasons for this — Demond Demas is taking longer to break out than expected while anybody not named Ainias Smith has been unable to stay healthy.

But this could be the year. Why?

For starters, Texas A&M didn’t have a truly consistent option at quarterback in 2021. With Haynes King dropping with a leg injury, the Aggies turned to Zach Calzada. Calzada got the job done but wasn’t “the guy” in College Station, leading to his eventual transfer to Auburn.

For perspective, Texas A&M’s passing offense ranked 88th in the country last season. That’s out of 130 teams. So… not good.

Presumably, something that played a big factor in this was the fact that Calzada was trained as the team’s backup quarterback. There was no chemistry and, in all honesty, probably not a lot of belief among players.

2022 is a can’t-lose situation for the Aggies. A&M has brought in LSU transfer Max Johnson while retaining Haynes King, 2021’s original starter. If neither of those options pan out, five-star quarterback Conner Weigman will be around to clean up the mess. It’s hard to see a world where these guys don’t bring the best out of each other.

Smith’s return is just the cherry on top here. With the team’s leading receiver back and five-star Evan Stewart set to join the team, A&M is set to have a huge year from wide receivers.