3 Reasons Texas A&M Football Will Demolish Arkansas

Ainias Smith Breaks Out for Texas A&M Football

One of the many big injuries for the Aggies last year was losing Ainias Smith for the season in this game. The injury came on a day where Smith was really firing on all cylinders, too—the drive before, he had single-handedly converted a 2nd and 30 on a short drag route that he turned upfield, evading Razorback defenders left and right. He ultimately went down while blocking for Max Johnson on a speed option play, and it was evident pretty immediately that it was a serious injury.

Despite this, Smith has been working all offseason, rehabbing that injury and preparing himself to play another year as a top receiver in the conference. Because of what happened last year, I see this as being a game that Ainias has circled on the schedule, much like Alabama was in 2021. After a bit of a slow start through the first two games, Smith has played a huge role in both of the previous two contrasts, and remains one of the conference’s elite receivers at picking up yards after the catch. When he gets in the open field, he’s absolutely deadly.

Given that Ainias is one of the WRs most familiar with Max, as he was a top target for Johnson in his three starts last year, I think that the connection between the two will show up big time in Jerryworld. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ainias get over 100 yards receiving on the day, and with the quality of this Razorback secondary, I think we’ll see a lot of those yards coming after the catch.