Justin Frye saw nothing but progress in his time at UCLA.
Frye was hired in February 2018 to revamp an offensive line that needed revamping, finishing No. 11 in the Pac-12 in rushing offense during the 2017 season, averaging 113.4 yards per game and 3.7 yards per rush , while allowing more than two sacks per game.
Over the course of four seasons, Frye helped UCLA become one of the best run games in the Pac-12, allowing running backs like Joshua Kelley and Michigan transfer Zach Charbonnet to become household names out west and helped quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson rank No. 1 in the league in passing efficiency.
Monday, Ohio State made the move to start that revamping process again.
The Buckeyes announced that Frye would take over as offensive line coach for Greg Studrawa, who Ohio State confirmed Thursday was no longer a member of the coaching staff.
Frye was also named as the associate head coach for the offense.
“I am thrilled to welcome Justin, his wife, Lauren, and their family to Ohio State and the football program,” Day said. “Justin and I have worked on the same staffs together and I’ve seen first-hand how good he is at developing his players as well as building personal connections with them. I believe he’ll do great things here to enhance his room and our offense as a whole.”
In 2021, for an offensive line that helped the run game average 215.2 yards per game, five yards per carry with 31 touchdowns, for an offensive line that allowed 23 sacks in 12 games, it didn't come from an offensive line that was full of highly-ranked recruits.
In a unit headlined by Sean Thyan, a four-star tackle, who was the No. 14 prospect in the 2019 class — a player that has started every game for the Bruins since he arrived, UCLA has a line filled with two three-stars, one two-star and a zero-star: Paul Grattan Jr., who has started each of his last two seasons for UCLA after transferring as a All-CAA guard.
But Frye still saw progress from the moment he stepped onto the campus of UCLA after serving as the run-game coordinator and offensive line coach at Boston College for five seasons.
From his first season in 2019, UCLA improved its run game by more than 40 yards per game on average, recording three-straight seasons of averaging at least 200 yards rushing per game.
In 2020, sacks by opponents decreased to 1.7 per game, more than a one-sack decrease from 2019.
It's progress, progress Ohio State head coach Ryan Day saw in the flesh.
Frye and Day crossed paths at Boston College and Temple, putting together the Big East's best run game while the current Ohio State head coach worked as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.
That's all Ohio State wants for its offensive line: progress.
It's a room that struggled late in 2021 with finding consistent run lanes for freshman TreVeyon Henderson and company. It did keep quarterback C.J. Stroud protected most of the time — allowing 17 sacks in 13 games — but it was a unit with two of the five offensive lineman out of position, with tackles Thayer Munford and Paris Johnson Jr. both playing guard.
Johnson is expected to move back to one of the tackle spots in 2022, starting along with Matthew Jones and either Donovan Jackson or Harry Miller at guard, Luke Wypler at center and possibly Dawand Jones at the other tackle spot, who has not announced whether he will return for his senior year or not.
Frye will have an experienced offensive like to work with and will try and turn things around, especially for an offense that averaged 180.3 rushing yards per game after two-straight seasons of at least 250 rushing yards per game.
The potential is there. Now it's Frye's turn to see if he can turn it around again.
