Ohio State To Name UCLA’s Justin Frye New Offensive Line Coach

On Jan 7, 2022

Multiple sources have indicated to BuckeyesNow that Ohio State is set to hire UCLA’s Justin Frye as its new offensive line coach.

An announcement could come as soon as Friday, with additional responsibilities such as run game coordinator expected to be attached to his official title after the Buckeyes outbid other programs for his services.

The 38-year-old Frye began his coaching career in 2007 as a graduate assistant at Indiana, where he played offensive tackle and set the school record for consecutive starts from 2002-06. He then spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Florida under former head coach Urban Meyer.

Frye landed his first job as an offensive line coach at Temple in 2011, where he was joined one season later by current head coach Ryan Day, who was the Owls’ offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2012.

The two then coached together for two seasons at Boston College, with Day as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Frye as the offensive line coach, until Day took a job with Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles.

During his time at Boston College, Frye’s offensive line helped pave the way for Heisman Trophy finalist and Doak Walker Award winner Andre Williams, who rushed for 2,177 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2013. That includes school single-game records of 339 yards and five touchdowns in wins over N.C. State and Army, respectively.

The following season, the Eagles’ offensive line helped quarterback Tyler Murphy break the single-season ACC record and school’s career record for rushing yards by a quarterback (1,184 yards).

In 2017, Boston College running back A.J. Dillon ranked seventh in the country with 1,589 yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground. The Eagles allowed just 1.15 sacks per game that season, as well, good for 13th nationally.

Frye was hired by Kelly, who is now the Bruins’ head coach, in 2018 and UCLA’s rushing attack improved by more than 40 yards per game from the previous season. That includes 1,243 yards from running back Joshua Kelly, the 10th-highest total in a single season in school history.

Kelley posted his second-straight 1,000-yard season in 2019, when Frye was promoted to offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. He also coached a consensus freshman All-American in offensive tackle Sean Rhyan that fall.

The Bruins continued to see improvement running the ball in 2020, when they rushed for 230.6 yards per game and ranked 12th in the nation. That includes an average of 5.1 yards per carry, UCLA’s highest mark since 1976.

This past season, the Bruins rushed for at least 200 yards in all eight of their wins and averaged 215.1 yards per game, good for 17th nationally. UCLA led the Pac-12 in scoring and was second in total offense with 441.2 yards and 36.5 points per game.

Running back Zach Charbonnet was second in the conference with 1,137 yards, including seven 100-yard games, while Brittain Brown led the Pac-12 with 6.03 yards per carry.

Frye will become the second coach to join the Ohio State football program this offseason, joining Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. He’ll replace former offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, who was fired on Thursday after six seasons in Columbus.