Ainias Smith Vows Texas A&M Football Will “Mess Up” The Tide
Monday before a game week is here, and that means it’s press conference day for Texas A&M football. One of the players who took the podium today was Aggie super-senior Ainias Smith. Anytime Smith speaks, Texas A&M football fans get a new quote to chew on; he’s not only a great player on the field, but he’s a great leader in the locker room and one of the top ambassadors for the program. You can tell he loves this Texas A&M football program every time he speaks about it, and he’s always dropping tidbits that get the fans hyped up.
Another such instance came this week, as Smith was answering questions ahead of the Alabama matchup. For those who are unaware, this matchup, as Ainias has previously discussed, is somewhat personal for him. Smith’s brother, Maurice, was denied a routine graduate transfer request when he played at Alabama due to the staff perceiving that he wanted to go to Georgia. From the looks of it, this was a decision in which Nick Saban was personally involved. It makes sense, then, that Ainias would hold a bit of animosity towards the coach that made things unnecessarily hard on his brother, despite the fact that Maurice had fulfilled an obligation and graduated from the university.
So, when asked about whether this game was a little more personal, Ainias had a bit of a long answer. Here’s how he wrapped it up:
“I know what Nick Saban wants, and we going to mess that up.”
I love it.
On a side note, I love how Ainias talks about Saban during this presser. He never calls him “coach”—he only ever calls him “Nick” or “Nick Saban.” He’s not taken in by the myth; he knows that the Tide coach is a mere man—and Smith has seen him bleed.
Metaphorically, I mean. I’m talking about when they beat Alabama two years ago. Although I guess Saban did complain about the field storming thing and said he got hurt, but I think that was just a bruise. Not a cut. Anyway, you get it.