Scout team star ready to be a Yellow Jacket

"I'm battling for more than just playing time; I want to stay on the field all three downs. Next year is going to show what kind of team we have [if] a guy like Derrick Morgan leaves [for the NFL]. Is there somebody to step up?"

Dieke, who has only been playing football since the ninth grade, was recruited by Auburn, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. He has heard the gloom about whether Georgia Tech’s already wobbly defense can handle the expected departure of Morgan, the All-America defensive end, to the NFL.

Tech had its last practice before the holidays Monday morning -- there is another week of work before the Orange Bowl Jan. 5 against Iowa -- then Dieke can get down to the business of winning a job.

"I always tell him don't try and come in and meet up to somebody else's standards," said defensive back Morgan Burnett, one of Dieke's roommates. "Just come in and be the best Too Tall you can be. He can start next year. He has a passion for the game and he's going to fight and be hungry to start."

Added defensive line coach Giff Smith, "He has the length that you are looking for at the position that he plays. The future bodes well for him. It's too early to classify how good he can be, but we obviously feel he has a chance to be real good.

“My impression of him is he wants to play and he wants to be good. When you act that way, you have a chance.”

Keeping an edge

The holidays are no time to go soft on the football field, even with the Orange Bowl still two weeks away. Iowa is a physical football team and Georgia Tech has kept a physical attitude in practice so it doesn’t lose tackling timing.

"We've been in pads every day since we've been back, except the first day," coach Paul Johnson said. "We're probably going to play some live one-on-ones (first-team defense vs. first-team offense) when we get back next week."

Snow bound

The first Georgia Tech player from Maine hustled through the doors to the Edge Center at 11:45 a.m. hurrying so he could catch a 1 p.m. flight back home to ... snow: 18 inches of it.

Jordan Conant, a 6-foot, 205-pound walk-on, would not ask to leave practice early, but at least he had a ride to the airport and the car was packed.

“You should have told me, knucklehead,” Johnson called out as his quarterback disappeared down the hallway to the locker room.

Walk-ons, of course, are not in the habit of asking for favors.