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Sterling Lucas says Bryan Thomas Jr.’s increased weight is ‘only going to help him even more’

There were glimpses of what Bryan Thomas Jr. could become at South Carolina. He’s shown flashes of solid play. But now, he’s going to try to put it all together this season.

After seeing a little more playing time last year, Thomas enters the spring looking a little bigger, which isn’t uncommon for players to do. Defensive ends coach Sterling Lucas spoke about Thomas’ weight increase and how it’s going to help his game.

“For Bryan, right now he’s 247. I think he might’ve played at like 235 last year,” Lucas said. “But even with that increased weight, he’s able to maintain his speed.”

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Thomas saw action in all 12 games last year, six of those coming as a starter at the EDGE position. He finished with 22 tackles, including a pair of tackles for loss and a sack. He also had three quarterback hurries and forced a fumble.

It was undoubtedly a step up from not making any starts as a true freshman in 2022. But this year, he’s got a shot to build off what he did last season and break through.

Like any player, though, there are things that Thomas needs to continue to work on in spring practice, Lucas said.

“So for Bryan, there’s three things in pass rush that we talk about,” Lucas said. “We talk about the approach, the move area and the finish. All right, Bryan has a great approach. The approach is your get off, he’s getting off the football, he has one of the best get offs on our team. For him, it’s really the move area and the finish that we’re really trying to work on. He has some quarterback pressures and quarterback hits last year. But we’re trying to turn those things into sacks.”

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As Thomas continues to harness the other parts of his game, Lucas is fully confident that the added weight should only benefit him. It’s going to allow him to be even more physical and menacing up front than he was a year ago.

“That increased weight is only going to help him even more,” Lucas said. “He’s able to add more power to his game, he’s able to add more counters to his game. So for him, I’m really excited about Bryan Thomas.”