Saturday, September 24
Arlington, Texas
6:00 PM
Texas A&M
vs
Arkansas
Photo by: Aiden Shertzer/Texas A&M Athletics
No. 20 Football Opens SEC Play with No. 10 Arkansas
Sep 23, 2022 | Football
No. 20 Texas A&M heads to the Metroplex and AT&T Stadium for the annual Southwest Classic, as the Aggies face No. 10 Arkansas Saturday night (6 p.m., ESPN) in the SEC opener for both teams.
GAME 4: #20 TEXAS A&M (2-1) vs #10 ARKANSAS (3-0)
- Saturday, September 24 • 6:05 p.m. (CT)
- AT&T Stadium (80,000)
- TV: ESPN (Joe Tessitore, Greg McElroy, Katie George)
- Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network, SiriusXM 133 or 190 (Andrew Monaco, Dave Elmendorf, Will Johnson)
- Live Audio: 12th Man Mobile app
- Live Stats: Click Here
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
- The Aggies will begin SEC play Saturday, facing Arkansas for the 79th time in program history and the 11th time in Arlington.
- Senior WR Ainias Smith ranks as one of the SEC’s top receivers, as his 86.3 yards-per-game average ranks third in the league and his 259 receiving yards on the year are good for fourth in the SEC ... Smith has caught at least one pass in 26 consecutive games, a streak that dates back to the LSU game in 2019.
- Junior RB Devon Achane has made at least one trip to the end zone in each of A&M’s first three games and is the only player in the nation to have scored a rushing, receiving and kickoff return touchdown already this season.
- Achane leads the nation with a 39.60 kickoff return average (5-198 yards) in 2022 ... He scored the second KOR TD of his career with a 95-yard sprint to the end zone against App State.
- Junior QB Max Johnson made his first start as an Aggie, leading A&M to a 17-9 win over No. 13 Miami ... He threw his first touchdown pass in the Maroon & White, connecting with Achane on a 25-yard toss.
- Senior DB Demani Richardson has put his veteran leadership and versatility on display this season, leading the team with 34 career starts while also pacing the SEC with a pair of forced fumbles on the year and ranking second among league DBs with 2.5 tackles for loss.
- Junior DB Jaylon Jones made his 2022 debut in the win over Miami and led the Aggies with a career-high nine tackles, also adding a breakup.
- Junior DB Antonio Johnson, who was second on the team in tackles in 2021, leads the way and ranks eighth in the SEC with 25 takedowns so far this season.
Bryce Anderson
QUICK HITS
- A&M remains as one of the best defenses in the country at limiting scoring and passing again this season ... The Aggies rank ninth nationally in scoring defense (8.7 ppg) and passing defense (147.3y/g), also sitting in 22nd with 14 pass breakups on the year.
- After recording just six pass breakups in the first two games, the Maroon & White defense tallied eight against Miami, including two each from sophomores DB Tyreek Chappell, DB Jardin Gilbert and LB Edgerrin Cooper.
- Freshman DB Bryce Anderson showed out against the Hurricanes, tallying eight tackles in the victory after entering the week with just two tackle on the season.
- Junior P Nik Constantinou, pinned Miami inside the 20-yard line three times, landing punts at Miami 9, 8 and 1-yard lines, marking the sixth time in his career that he has pinned the opponent inside the 20-yard line three-or-more times in a game ... For his performance, he was name SEC Special Teams Player of the Week.
- Sophomore PLK Randy Bond, sailed his first field goal through the uprights against Miami on the first attempt of his career, nailing a 26-yard attempt and also adding a pair of PATs.
- A&M’s 17-9 win over No. 13 Miami marked the seventh victory for the Maroon & White over an AP top 15 team under head coach Jimbo Fisher.
- The Aggies are 23-5 (.821 win pct.) at Kyle Field under Coach Fisher ... In the five seasons prior to Fisher’s arrival, the Aggies were 23-12 on their home turf (.657).
- Quick starts have been a harbinger of Aggie victories in the Jimbo Fisher era ... The Aggies are 28-4 when scoring first and a perfect 26-0 when leading after the first quarter.
Max Johnson
JOHNSON TAKES OVER AS QB
- Junior QB Max Johnson came to Aggieland after spending two years at LSU, where he played in 18 games and made 14 starts ... He made his first start at A&M in Week 3, leading the Aggies to a 17-9 win over then-No. 13 Miami.
- Johnson connected on 10-of-20 pass attempts for 140 yards, including a 25-yard scoring strike to junior RB Devon Achane ... He was an effective scrambler with four rushes for 34 yards.
- Johnson compiled an 8-6 record as the starter at LSU, surpassing the 300-yard plateau in passing yards six times in his two seasons in Baton Rouge, including career bests of 435 yards against Ole Miss in 2020 and five touchdowns against Central Michigan in 2021.
- Johnson is joined in Aggieland by his brother Jake, who was a top-rated tight end in A&M’s historic 2022 signing class ... He is the son of Brad Johnson, a 17-year NFL veteran that helped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win Super Bowl XXXVII and is the nephew of former Georgia and Miami head coach Mark Richt.
Ainias Smith
MILESTONE WATCH
- Senior WR Ainias Smith needs three TD catches to reach the 20-touchdown plateau, which has only been attained previously by Jeff Fuller (34), Josh Reynolds (30), Christian Kirk (26) and Ryan Swope (24).
- Smith needs 228 all-purpose yards to become the 19th player in school history to reach the 3,000-yard plateau in career yards.
- Junior RB Devon Achane is 148 rushing yards away from moving into the top 30 on A&M’s all-time career list, racking up 1,470 to-date.
- Graduate DB Myles Jones cracked the top-10 on A&M’s and the SEC’s career passes defended lists by season’s end in 2020, sitting at 10th all-time at A&M and eighth in SEC history with 28 breakups to-date.
Ainias Smith
SWISS ARMY KNIFE
- Senior WR Ainias Smith has been called a “Swiss Army Knife” by head coach Jimbo Fisher because of his do-it-all ability on the field.
- Smith made a statement in the first game of his final season in Aggieland, leading the team with six receptions for a career-high 164 yards and a pair of trips to the end zone.
- Smith has recorded seven multi-touchdown games in his career, catching multiple TD passes in a game five times ... Against the Bearkats, Smith hauled in a 63-yard scoring pass to put the Aggies up 17 points at the half and sealed the victory in the fourth quarter with a 43-yard TD grab.
- Dating back to the 2019 LSU game, Smith has caught a pass in 26 consecutive games.
- A true quadruple threat, Smith has gained more than 250 yards as a rusher (384), receiver (1,580), punt returner (551) and kick returner (257) ... Among Aggies already in the 3,000-yard club, only six players even have stats in all four categories and just two -- Dante Hall and Larry Stegent -- had 250+ in all four.
- In 2021, Smith became the third player in SEC history to rack up 1,000 receiving yards while also gaining 250+ yards as a rusher and returner (punt and kickoff) ... The others are Kentucky’s Randall Cobb (2008-10) and LSU’s Skyler Green (2002-05).
- A&M’s go-to on punt return, Smith finished the 2021 season 11th in the nation with an 11.3 yards-per-return average, good for third in the SEC ... He recorded the first special teams TD of his career on A&M’s first possession of the game against South Carolina when he posted the sixth-longest punt return in SEC history, going 95 yards to the house.
Devon Achane
ACHANE IS OFF THE CHAIN
- Junior RB Devon Achane looks to lead the Aggies as the premier back this season after flexing his speed and versatility last year.
- Despite a slow start in 2022, Achane still averages an impressive 6.7 yards per carry for his career (1,470 yards on 219 carries in 23 games) ... Among Aggies with more than 1,400 career yards, Achane is one of three that averaged 6.0-or-more yards per carry -- Johnny Manziel (6.3) and Trayveon Williams (6.0).
- Through the first three games of the season, Achane has already reached the end zone as rusher, receiver and returner after extending A&M’s lead in the third quarter of the Miami game with a 25-yard TD grab ... In 2021, Achane also made it to the end zones in all three facets en-route to leading the offense with 10 touchdowns.
- Against App State, Achane’s two trips to the end zone marked the seventh multi-TD game of his career, when he scored on a 26-yard rush to put the Aggies on the board and later added the second special teams touchdown of his career.
- With his 95-yard kickoff return against App State, Achane became the fourth Aggie with multiple kickoff return TDs of 95-or-more yards, joining Leeland McElroy (100 vs. Southern Miss, 1994 and 100 vs. Texas, 1994), Carl Roaches (100 vs. Boston College, 1973 and 97 at LSU, 1972) and Cyrus Gray (99 at Colorado, 2009 and 98 vs. Oklahoma, 2008).
- He tallied four 100-yard games as a sophomore to bring his career total to six through his first two seasons.
- The talented back also runs track for the Aggies, already receiving NCAA All-America selections in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay ... In April of this year, Achane clocked the sixth-fastest time in A&M history in the 200m (20.20) and posted a time of 10.14 in the 100m at the 2022 Texas Relays.
Deuce Fatheree and Josh Bankhead
THE MAROON GOONS
- The Texas A&M offensive line returns great experience from last season ... Led by junior Layden Robinson, the Aggies return three of five starters from a year ago.
- Robinson is in his second year as a starter after helping clear the way for one of the top running back tandems in the nation in 2021 ... He was a key reserve in 2020 when A&M became the first school in the last 10 years to lead the SEC in sacks allowed (0.7), tackles for loss allowed (3.8) and yards per carry (5.45) in the same season.
- In 2021, the Maroon Goons cleared the way for a pair of 100-yard rushers in the same game on three occasions, as the duo of Isaiah Spiller and Devon Achane rushed for over 100 yards a combined 10 times on the year.
- Sophomores Bryce Foster and Reuben Fatheree II made immediate impacts in their debut seasons as Foster started all 12 games at center and Fatheree II earned a starting role at right tackle for the final nine games of the season ... The pair of newcomers were recognized for their hard work as they were named Freshman All-Americans by the FWAA and The Athletic.
- Sophomore Aki Ogunbiyi, along with redshirt freshmen Matthew Wykoff and Trey Zuhn III, added depth for the Aggies off the bench last season with Ogunbiyi starting four of the eight games he appeared in.
Antonio Johnson
AJ EMERGES AS LEADER
- Junior DB Antonio Johnson emerged as one of the SEC’s top tacklers among DBs in his first season as the Aggies’ starter at nickel in 2021.
- Johnson remains as one of the league’s top tacklers, currently ranking eighth in the SEC with 25 total takedowns so far this season.
- Johnson registered the third double-digit tackle game of his career against App State, tallying 13 takedowns to lead the way for the Aggies.
- Johnson tallied 79 tackles in 2021, which was the second most on the team ... He led the Aggies and was tied for 11th in the SEC with 53 solo takedowns.
- On the season, Johnson led the team in tackles in four games, including against Mississippi State when he tallied a career-high 15 ... He added 11 tackles at Ole Miss to record the second double-digit tackle game of his young career.
- Johnson was third on the team with five passes defended last season and recorded the first interception of his career when he picked off Missouri in the first quarter and returned the ball 6 yards.
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