Reports: Ohio State Set to Hire UCLA OC Justin Frye as New OL Coach
The Bruins are about to lose another position coach and another one of their best recruiters.
UCLA football offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Justin Frye is nearing a deal to become Ohio State's next offensive line coach, Sports Illustrated's Buckeyes Now reports. The Buckeyes fired Greg Studrawa on Thursday after he spent six years with the program, and Frye immediately emerged as a top candidate to replace him.
Frye has spent the last four seasons with the Bruins, first exclusively as an offensive line coach before adding the offensive coordinator title in 2019. Coach Chip Kelly has still been the primarily play-caller, though, so Frye's position as coordinator was mostly done to justify a salary bump.
At UCLA, Frye was getting paid $700,000 a year. Studrawa earned $700,000 at Ohio State last year just as offensive line coach, so it is unlikely Frye will be taking a pay cut despite the step down in terms of title. Frye was connected to the Fresno State head coaching job and Indiana offensive coordinator position earlier in the offseason, but both of those positions are no longer vacant.
According to Buckeyes Now, Frye will also be named run game coordinator as part of a deal that helped Ohio State outbid other schools for his services.
There may not be many coaches out there better than Frye in terms of revamping a run game, considering what he helped do in Westwood alongside Kelly.
In 2018, Frye's offensive line paved the way for running back Joshua Kelley to post the 10th-most yards in program history, and Kelley followed that up with another 1,000-yard campaign in 2019 when Frye added coordinator duties. Receiver-turned-running back Demetric Felton was one of the best running backs in the Pac-12 in 2020 under Frye's watch, and the two-man combination of Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown made for the top one-two punch in the West in 2021.
Even going back to his days at Boston College, Frye was in charge of the offensive line when Andre Williams ran his way to a Heisman finalist spot, when Tyler Murphy set the ACC single-season rushing record for a quarterback and when AJ Dillon burst onto the scene in 2017 behind one of the top blocking units in the nation.
Frye started as a graduate assistant at Indiana, then took on the same role at Florida under Urban Meyer. He then made the move to Temple and eventually followed head coach Steve Addazio to Chestnut Hill, where he coached alongside then-Boston College offensive coordinator Ryan Day.
With Day now in Columbus, Frye will be reuniting with his old Boston College companion at Ohio State, with an announcement reportedly expected as soon as Friday. Kelly coached with Day at several different stops as well – Day was Kelly's tight ends coach at New Hampshire in 2002 and his quarterbacks coach with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.
UCLA's offensive line, even looking past Frye's departure, was set to undergo a bit of a reset this coming season. Left guard Paul Grattan is out of eligibility, right tackle Alec Anderson declared for the draft and left tackle Sean Rhyan may not be far behind him.
The interior is steady with Atonio Mafi, Sam Marrazzo, Jon Gaines and Duke Clemens all expected back, but the players they're blocking for – Charbonnet, Brown and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson – could be leaving as well. With Kelly still not extended past this coming season either, even he has the potential to walk away, so the offense as a whole could be starting from scratch.
Multiple reports, with 247Sports’ Bruin Report Online first to the punch, have said tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Derek Sage has already left UCLA to become Nevada’s new offensive coordinator. Rumors of that move first popped up back in December, and it appears Sage is now working on his staff in Reno before the signing has been publicly announced.
Sage's top weapon, Greg Dulcich, declared for the draft on Wednesday, and top receiver Kyle Philips did so on Tuesday.
There is a real possibility that UCLA opens next season with a new head coach, a new offensive coordinator, a new quarterback, a new starting running back, a new No. 1 receiver, a new top tight end and three new starters on the offensive line. Frye, Dulcich, Philips, Anderson, Grattan and Brown are already gone, placing extra importance on what Kelly, Thompson-Robinson and others decide to do next.
The defensive staff has also had a bit of turnover, with defensive line coach Johnny Nansen and outside linebackers coach Jason Kaufusi both taking jobs at Arizona, but they have already been replaced by Chad Kauha’aha’a and Ikaika Malloe, respectively.
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