For Smith, it’s personal against Alabama
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M senior receiver Ainias Smith is more familiar with Alabama than perhaps any other A&M player, based on Smith’s history with the Crimson Tide.
“I know what Nick Saban wants,” Smith said of the coach’s plans on defense and offense. “And we’re gonna mess that up.”
The Aggies (4-1, 2-0 Southeastern) host No. 11 Alabama (4-1, 2-0) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in a wrestle for the SEC West lead. Camping on campus for tickets among A&M students already has commenced for one of the nation’s most ballyhooed games on Saturday, but the Crimson Tide have been lodged in Smith’s mind even longer based on the experience of his brother, Maurice Smith, at Alabama seven years ago.
“I feel like this game is always more personal, every time I’m playing, you know what I’m saying?” Ainias said. “I don’t know, what happened, it’s in the past now and I’m not able to control it, but every time I do look on that sideline I do think about what happened, and I’ll definitely be thinking about it.
“It’s more personal for sure.”
It’s personal because Maurice, then an Alabama defensive back, said via an appeals letter to Alabama in the summer of 2016 that once he informed Saban he intended to transfer to Georgia, the next day he found his locker cleaned out and his personal belongings “in the trash underneath trash.”
Maurice eventually moved on to a final year of college at Georgia and then an NFL career. Ainias gets one more crack at Alabama with the Crimson Tide winning three of four since he’s been an Aggie, and A&M and Ainias are treating the contest as bigger than settling any family matters.
“Personally, I do feel like we have a narrative of us being, I guess you could say, the laughingstock of the SEC at lot of times in the past,” Ainias said. “We had a lot of expectations on our backs, and we ended up falling short of those expectations.”
A&M, which has won its first two league games over Auburn and Arkansas by a combined 29 points, entered the previous two seasons ranked No. 6 in the initial Associated Press top 25 poll, only to finish unranked.
“I guess you could say, ‘(Let’s) change the narrative,’ let’s go ahead and show what we’re really capable of,” Smith said. “Instead of letting the people talk for us, let’s do the talking on the field. And I feel like if we get this (win) against Bama, then we aren’t going to have to say nothin’.”
The typically top-heavy SEC West appears primed for the taking among its current top four, with Alabama and A&M the lone unbeatens in conference play in the division. All seven SEC West teams have at least one loss overall, and none are ranked among the AP top 10 nearly halfway through the regular season.
“Alabama is Alabama and they’re a great team,” said A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, a former Saban assistant at LSU two decades ago. “What we have to do is get prepared to play Alabama or whoever you’re playing, because each game is a big game. I know that sounds cliché … and I get it, but as a player and a coach, you can’t (make it bigger).
“It’s that simple and I don’t mean that as any disrespect to them, but you’ve got to control what you can control. And that’s the next game and how you prepare, and you prepare for them like you would anybody else.”
Two years ago A&M edged Alabama 41-38 on a last-second field goal by then-A&M kicker Seth Small at Kyle Field. Last year Alabama edged A&M 24-20 as the Aggies’ final short pass play to the goal line fell incomplete.
The Crimson Tide, who are led by former Tompkins High star Jalen Milroe at quarterback, have won three straight games by an average of 17 points following a Week 2 home loss to No. 3 Texas. The Aggies have won three straight games by an average of 24 points following a Week 2 loss at No. 17 Miami.
Alabama has won six national titles since Saban took over the program in 2007, and the Crimson Tide are for now the most imposing obstacle in the way of A&M climbing in the driver’s seat in the West — and the Aggies draw Alabama at home.
“They’re playing as well as they’ve played all season long,” Saban said of the Aggies, who are trying to win their first SEC West crown in their 12th season in the league. “They’ve gotten better and better and better since the (Miami) game … and they’re really good on defense. Jimbo does a good job with them on offense, and they’ve got some really good skill players. …
“They’re very difficult to run the ball against, and they score a lot of points. The combination of those two things makes them a really, really good team.”