Week Five's Overnight Sensation: Ainias Smith, Wide Receiver

Each Monday during the 2019 Texas A&M football season, we’ll identify a first or second-year Aggie player who delivered an exceptional performance and earned the distinction of being the week’s ‘Overnight Sensation.’ 

“We wish we could have gotten him in earlier, we went with some guys with more experience in this game. Ainias has got to play, I’ve said that same one. That’s on me.”

That was Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher at the postgame presser inside the Kyle Field Media Center last Saturday following the Aggies’ disheartening loss to the Auburn Tigers. You could say he addressed his goal with getting the electric freshman into the mix early against Arkansas.

Ainias Smith: One play, one touchdown. It really was that simple.

Smith came into the fold with the Aggies down near the goal line during the first quarter of Saturday’s contest at AT&T Stadium. Kellen Mond found the receiver after he found a hole in the zone of the Razorback defense. He secured the catch and then spun into the endzone to record his third touchdown in as many games for the Maroon & White.

Lia Musgrave, TexAgs

Ainias Smith’s TD grab on Saturday against Arkansas was the third in as many games for the Maroon & White.

Speaking of the last three games for the playmaker out of Fort Bend Dulles, the numbers themselves are impressive. According to Gabe, the freshman has been targeted 17 times in the last three weeks, accumulating 12 catches for 161 yards and three touchdowns.

It wasn’t just offensively where the Aggies felt the impact of Smith on Saturday. In place of an absent Roshauud Paul, No. 17 also touched the ball as the Aggies’ punt returner. Late in the third quarter, he grabbed a slicing punt from Arkansas punter Connor Limpert (one that Smith actually muffed but caught again on the hop) and made a man miss to help give A&M better field position on a drive that led to Quartney Davis’ second receiving touchdown of the day.

However, Smith’s performance and importance to his team were summed up perfectly by head coach Jimbo Fisher after the game.

“That sucker just has a way to make plays, he’s a playmaker.”

Ainias Smith stats vs. Arkansas

• Five catches
• 80 receiving yards
• One touchdown

Smith’s season stats

• 12 catches
• 161 receiving yards
• Three touchdowns

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