Emmitt James Smith IV, wearing No. 22 on Florida’s football field, helped lead his team to victory on Saturday — but not how Gators fans with long, sweet memories envisioned.
“That felt real good,” said the running back Smith, better known as EJ Smith, of contributing to a win on the same field his famous father starred on 35 years prior.
“Shoot, running out of that tunnel, even pregame and seeing his name on the top of the stadium, it was a weird feeling, because I was in an Aggie uniform and not a Gator uniform, doing what I’m supposed to do.”
EJ Smith earned six carries for 24 yards in No. 25 Texas A&M’s 33-20 victory at Florida, with his dad, Emmitt Smith, proudly in the crowd.
The Aggies (2-1, 1-0 SEC) will again lean on EJ on Saturday night against Bowling Green (1-1) as a valuable reserve running back in a nonconference contest, and A&M fans are happy the native Texan began a little Texas dreamin’ in California about a year ago as a fourth-year Stanford running back.
“(A&M) is close to home, and I’ve always been an Aggie fan,” said EJ, whose sister Rheagen Smith played soccer at A&M from 2017-19. “(With) my sister here I was always around campus, and just being back in Texas was very important to me, because I’m back close to family. I enjoyed my time on the West Coast, but it was time for me to come back to the South.”
