Georgia Tech quarterback Justin Thomas and wide receiver DeAndre Smelter, who had missed the first two days of practice this week after suffering injuries in the Duke game, returned to practice Wednesday.
Following Wednesday’s practice, coach Paul Johnson assessed both as “fine” and indicated his expectation for them to play Saturday against North Carolina. Smelter injured himself crashing into a gate in a stadium tunnel after trying to run down a pass in the end zone in the first quarter.
“He’s just bruised up,” Johnson said.
Thomas injured his ankle getting tackled in the first half of last Saturday’s game. Left tackle Bryan Chamberlain, who missed the Duke game with an ankle injury, has practiced this week and is expected to start.
Johnson also said that he doesn’t plan to play first-year freshman B-back C.J. Leggett against North Carolina. Johnson had said earlier in the week that, with running back Synjyn Days moving back from B-back to A-back, he wanted to give Leggett a look to see if he could contribute enough to warrant removing his redshirt. Instead, the Yellow Jackets will use either Matt Connors or Days as starting B-back Zach Laskey’s backup.
“He does some good things,” Johnson said of Leggett. “But I’m not going to play C.J. to run eight plays a game.”
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