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Ainias Smith taking Southwest Classic ‘more personally’ after last year’s injury
By Andrew Olson
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Ainias Smith had his 2022 season end prematurely last year in Arlington, Texas. The Texas A&M playmaker is determined for things to go differently in this year’s Southwest Classic.
Smith suffered a fracture in last year’s Aggies win over the Razorbacks. He missed Texas A&M’s 8 remaining games in the 2022 campaign.
“Somebody came up to me during Stretch and Stride today and told me to get my revenge on that turf in Arlington,” Smith said in an interview with Billy Liucci of TexAgs. “It’s definitely time. This week, I’ll take it more personally because of what happened last year, but at the same time, I’m just going to play the game. I’m not going to press or stress.”
This season, Smith is second on the team in receiving. He has 18 catches for 272 yards. Smith could get some Arlington “revenge” by scoring his first touchdown of the season.
A veteran in his fifth season, Smith knows the Aggies will get the Razorbacks’ best when they meet Saturday at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. He’s confident that Texas A&M will be up to the challenge.
“I remember when I first got here, all the coaches were saying that Arkansas plays hard and it will be a fight until the finish,” Smith said to Liucci. “That’s always true. They play hard to the end. That’s the culture of their team, and they have a lot of people that do their jobs very well. You are not able to mess around with them. They do their jobs from special teams to offense to defense.
“You can’t let up against a team like that. They try to find every inch and everything they can possibly find to win the game. With our coaching staff and with us trying to win, I feel like we’re not going to allow that. There will be punches thrown back and forth the entire way. It’ll be decided by whoever wants it more.”
Saturday’s game is set for 11 a.m. CT/noon ET, airing on the SEC Network.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
