Notebook: Tech’s Word-Daniels unlikely to play

Injured Cornerback Jahi Word-Daniels, who had planned to return for his final game, was unable to practice Friday, and coach Paul Johnson said he would be surprised if the senior plays.

“He tweaked [his hamstring] a little bit in practice last week, and he doesn’t feel like he can go this week,” Johnson said.

Otherwise, Tech is fairly healthy for the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Safety Dominique Reese and linebacker Sedric Griffin, who suffered knee injuries Nov. 20 against Miami, are expected to start.

“Dominique is back full speed,” Johnson said.

Word-Daniels’ setback is a tough blow for a team leader who started 21 straight games until pulling his left hamstring Oct. 18 at Clemson. True freshman Rashaad Reid will continue to start for Word-Daniels.

“Missing all these games your last year, I know it’s really tough for him,” Johnson said of Word-Daniels.

Tech practiced in pads Friday and will do so again Saturday. Johnson said he hasn’t decided yet about Sunday. The coach welcomed the team back from Christmas break with a reminder about priorities.

“We’ve got a couple of goals for this game,” he said. “No. 1 is to win the game. No. 2 is to have fun. And No. 1 trumps everything else.”

Defensive end Derrick Morgan said the Jackets were “pretty amped up” for the first post-holiday practice.

“I know I kind of missed it a little bit,” he said. “I think everybody was ready to get back to work.”

Tech’s option concerns Miles

Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, LSU coach Les Miles talked about the difficulty of defending the option. He hasn’t seen an option team since he coached offense at Colorado and the Buffaloes played Oklahoma. He has never had to prepare a team to face the option.

“I can’t imagine how to prepare for this team in three days,” Miles said. “You just don’t get off the bus and know how to do this.”

Jackets taste bowl atmosphere

The Jackets left campus after Friday’s practice and checked into the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. Later in the day, both teams kicked off bowl festivities with welcome parties at the ESPN Zone.

Leading to Wednesday’s game, Tech and LSU also will visit the King Center, area hospitals and the Georgia Aquarium, eat at Fire of Brazil and compete in a Family Feud-style game.

“It’s exciting to get a little change of scenery, get out of the dorm room,” defensive end Derrick Morgan said. “I was looking at the schedule, and we’ve got nice events planned. Guys are excited even though [the bowl] is just down the street.”

Wide receiver Andrew Smith agreed, saying the Jackets were psyched to stay in Atlanta.

“Absolutely. This is the biggest bowl game we’ve played in since I’ve been here,” the senior said. “And it’s kind of like a home game for us, so we’re excited we’re going to have that many fans show up.”

Elbow pain haunts Smith

Guard A.J. Smith’s elbow doesn’t hurt only when he plays football — though it hurts a lot when he does that.

Even opening a door gives Smith pain, the result of multiple dislocations of his right elbow.

That won’t keep him from playing the final game of his career.

“It’s important for me to suck it up and play this last game,” said Smith, a senior.

After the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Smith will have surgery on the elbow to repair torn ligaments in the joint. He first dislocated the elbow last season and then again before the Virginia Tech game this season. It has come out of place a few more times since then. That and an illness caused him to miss three games this season.

Smith said the pain has been such that it crossed his mind to call it a career and undergo surgery. But he gets motivation from teammates such as linebacker Shane Bowen and offensive tackle David Brown, whose careers have ended prematurely because of injury. They are teammates, he said, “who’d kill to have one last game.”

Smith said that while the pain is so bad that he has to come out sometimes, he’ll try to play through the pain as much as he can.

Meanwhile, he practices and plays with a heavily padded brace. He says his grandmother calls him “The Transformer.”

Smith backs up guards Joseph Gilbert and Cord Howard.

— Staff writer Thomas Stinson contributed to this report.