Texas A&M wide receiver Ainias Smith calls Alabama game personal for family reasons

Whenever Alabama comes to town, there is a little extra spice added to the week for Texas A&M. There is the prior history between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher, both the good and the bad. Fisher was the first former assistant to take down Saban, doing so during the 2021 season in College Station.

But Fisher is not the only person at Texas A&M bringing some personal feelings into the game. Aggies wide receiver Ainias Smith says facing off against Alabama is “personal” for him.

“I feel like this game is always more personal, every time I’m playing, you know what I’m saying?” Ainias said via The Houston Chronicle. “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.”

The Smith family has a history with Saban, dating back to when Ainias’ older brother, Maurice, played for the Crimson Tide. He was looking to finish out his college eligibility elsewhere, well before the NCAA transfer portal was a thing. Georgia was his preferred destination and Saban was blocking the move.

“(The situation) is very disappointing just because now that we’ve come to this point and it’s a very heated situation,” Maurice Smith said via AL.com back in 2016. “There’s a lot of adversity that’s been thrown at me, the university, coach Saban, and it’s really making it something that it’s really not.

“I believe it was something that was just as simple as a transfer. But now it’s kind of transpired into something far greater, and a lot of bad things have been coming out of this. It’s just very disappointing because I never meant to hurt anyone. … I just feel like I’ve earned the right to better myself my last year and go into this season without any doubts.”

Maurice Smith wound up finishing his career at Georgia before moving on to the NFL. But the feud with Saban still runs in the family and Ainias has one more opportunity to get one over him.

There has been a ton of personal success for Smith when Texas A&M plays Alabama. He has 229 receiving yards and four touchdowns over the course of three games. However, there have not been any wins yet, missing the 2021 game due to injury.

Lining up against Alabama one last time, it’s going to be personal.