by durkcal on Wed Sep 28, 2022 6:18 pm
It makes little sense to play Nick Thomas and Conley the rest of the year. Just play Bowry and Otto Hess over them. (btw Hess had one of the only legit pancake blocks, albeit on a backup FSU DE in garbage time, that I have seen a BC OL make in years) For Thomas - he's just in over his head, and it's not worth it to invest so heavily in him when you have Bowry/Cline (I suspect it will be Bowry) and Trapilo as projected starting OT's next year. And for Conley, he isn't that young anymore, and while he may look the part, he just hasn't gotten even halfway to being an ACC OL. At least for Allick he's undersized, and been bounced around between OL and DL. And he still plays better than Conley!
the OL playing time priority list should be (health obviously being a prereq):
Trapilo - in limited snaps he held up pretty well in pass pro vs FSU. Of course we throw the ball in 0.5 seconds lol
Allick - he's actually built like a Center. Needs to get in the weight room in the offseason
Hess
Bowry
Kendall - he's been better than Week 1 debacle, but he looks even more overmatched against P5 than the most of our guys thus far.
Ness
Dirstine
Conley
Thomas
Next year you could see an OL of Mahogany, Trapilo, high quality transfer, and two of Allick/Hess/Bowry/Kendall/Cline. You give yourself a lot better idea of what that last quintet can do (and can't do) by giving the healthy ones fairly equal reps against Clemson, NC State and Notre Dame, etc.... I just don't see a scenario where Conley and Thomas start 2023 as starting OL for BC unless if that entire quintet transfers, and we don't get good replacement transfers.