Why game vs. Nick Saban, Alabama football is 'personal' for Texas A&M WR Ainias Smith

From the sordid history between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher to the SEC West title implications, there are no shortage of storylines surrounding No. 10 Alabama’s (4-1, 2-0 SEC) game Saturday against Texas A&M (4-1, 2-0) at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.

On Monday, Aggies wide receiver Ainias Smith added another layer of drama to the matchup.

During a news conference, Smith said squaring off against the Crimson Tide will be “personal” for him when asked about his feelings toward Alabama coach Nick Saban:

“I feel like this game is always more personal, every time I’m playing, you know what I’m saying?” Smith 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.”

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What happened between Nick Saban and Maurice Smith?

In recent years, an athlete or coach taking a game personally because of a real or imagined slight has become a trope and, thanks to Michael Jordan in "The Last Dance," even a meme.

In Smith’s case, there’s some history between his family and Saban that gives his feelings some relevance.

Smith’s older brother, Maurice, played for Saban at Alabama beginning in 2013. After graduating from the university in three years, the defensive back attempted to follow Kirby Smart to Georgia after the former Crimson Tide defensive coordinator took over as the head coach at his alma mater. Despite being a graduate transfer who could go from one university to another without the penalty of having to sit out one season, Smith’s move was initially blocked by Alabama.

What followed was a prolonged and contentious process.

Saban had said he didn’t want Smith transferring within the conference. Smith and his parents believed that as a graduate transfer who had fulfilled his academic obligation to the university that he should be able to transfer wherever he wanted, even if it was elsewhere in the SEC, to play for a coach who had overseen his development the previous three years.

It led to, according to reporting from AL.com at the time, a 20-minute “verbal battle” between Smith’s mother and Saban in the coach’s office. It even prompted Ainias Smith, then a rising high-school sophomore, to release a statement:

“I respected Coach Saban, but it’s hard to have respect for what he’s done to my brother and has never apologized for how he was treated,” Smith said in a 2016 statement. “He didn’t even care if he had food or money to eat during those weeks or if he was working out to stay in shape to possibly return to the team. This entire situation has made me have trust issues with coaches because the way Coach Saban talked to us while he was at my house, and it made me think that everything was going to be all good. But now he has showed me another side that I didn’t think I would see out of him.”

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What happened after Maurice Smith left Alabama?

Eventually, Saban and Alabama relented, granting Maurice Smith his release from the school.

Smith was cleared to play immediately at Georgia, circumventing what were intra-conference transfer rules at the time. In his lone season in Athens, Smith had 32 tackles and two interceptions in 2016, far eclipsing his 19 tackles and zero interceptions across his three years with the Crimson Tide. He wasn’t selected in the 2017 NFL Draft, but he spent four seasons in the league with the Miami Dolphins, Washington Commanders, Cincinnati Bengals and Tennessee Titans.

Ainias Smith, a senior in his fifth season with the Texas A&M program, has 22 catches for 343 yards this season, ranking him second on the team in both categories. The 5-10 wide receiver has 1,955 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns in his college career.

The personal feelings he has attached to playing the Crimson Tide have previously worked to his advantage. In his past two games against the Crimson Tide, in 2020 and 2021, Smith has 12 catches for 208 yards and four receiving touchdowns. He missed Texas A&M’s 24-20 loss in Tuscaloosa last season after suffering a season-ending right leg fracture against Arkansas on Sept. 30, 2022.

In this year’s Crimson Tide, who carry an uncharacteristically low No. 10 ranking into the matchup, Smith sees a defense that doesn’t quite resemble the ones on which his brother played almost a decade ago:

"I kind of know what Nick Saban expects from his offense, from his defensive side," Smith said Monday. "I'm not trying to be cocky or nothing, but his class — my brother's class, they was nice. They was real nice. No disrespect to Alabama right now, but them boys was always [No.] 1, 2 — you know what I'm saying? Like, it was no questions. Right now, I guess with the rankings, you could say — I ain't even gonna say that.

"But at the same time, I know what Nick Saban wants, and we're gonna mess that up. You know what I'm saying? If them boys don't got no momentum for real, we're gonna have to take that away, immediately, for sure."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Texas A&M's Ainias Smith: Game vs. Nick Saban, Alabama is 'personal'