Justin Frye builds depth with process in Ohio State offensive line

Justin Frye is not going to skip a step.

The Ohio State associate head coach for offense and offensive line coach is going through his installation process like he said he would when he first arrived in January, taking over Greg Studrawa’s post after serving as Chip Kelly’s offensive coordinator at UCLA.

“You’re going to install phase one and then two and three and four,” Frye said. “But as you’re going through that, you may progress a little faster.”

That’s what happens when you inherit an offensive line returning three starters, its sixth-man from 2021 who garnered 459 snaps last season and the No. 1 five-star guard from the 2021 recruiting class.

It’s not about Frye and the methods to his own personal madness. It’s introducing his room to his best practices of doing the same job Studrawa did: generating confidence from the quarterback that those guys up front know what they are doing, that they are going to do their jobs so he can do his job.

Other than those top five guys — Paris Johnson Jr., Matthew Jones, Luke Wypler, Donovan Jackson and Dawand Jones — Frye hasn’t had much to work with.

Josh Fryar, Trey Leroux, Zen Michalski and Ben Christman each missed time during spring camp, while only one of the Buckeyes’ four linemen in the 2022 class — George Fitzpatrick — was on campus as an early enrollee.

Frye’s not worried about his room on the injury front, saying he had a couple of players “get banged up a bit here and there in spring, but nothing major,” and expects everyone back. However, depth was on the mind of head coach Ryan Day as spring camp drew to a close.

"When you don’t have the full 15 practices of spring as an offensive lineman, it hurts. There’s nothing you can do about injuries. You just have to keep working through," Day said heading into the spring game. "That combined with the three of the guys that are coming in this summer. So I think as we start to get into the preseason, we’ll feel a little bit better about that depth and have 16 guys on scholarship there. But the development of those younger classes will be critically important to continue to build.”

But even with a number of players sidelined, Frye still saw a group that didn’t skip through the steps. The Ohio State offensive line coach put an emphasis on mental reps, working and executing plays even if the player’s not on the field participating.

There was still some shuffling around to do, going with the players he had available like Jakob James, Enokk Vimahi, Grant Toutant and Fitzpatrick, sliding some players around, having some players take extra reps, something Frye said, “never killed anybody.”

Through the spring, Frye was able to get a good “temperature gauge” of each member of his room, molding his teaching style to the different paths of the linemen instead of the age-old approach of, “this is how we do it, this is why we do it or get the hell out of the way.”

“You find out what makes Paris particular, find out what makes Donny tick, find out what makes Luke tick. You just go around these guys, how do you get Jakob James to play his best? And then you hold them to that standard and poke and prod and push or hug or love or whatever the adjective is there to get them to maximize themselves,” Frye said. “Because then, when it’s third-and-two, it doesn’t matter how they get there. We’ve got to get the first down.

That’s where Frye starts to build his relationships, developing the trust where he knows he’s going to get the best out of his players because they are getting the best out of him.

Ohio State still needs a fuller room.

Prior to the spring game, Day said he feels “really good” about six or seven options in his offensive line room, but that the Buckeyes need to keep building, getting to eight, nine or 10 options.

To Frye, that’s what the summer’s for: getting his linemen back in Mickey Marotti's strength and conditioning program, getting them back in the film room and finding those eight, nine or 10 players to settle in with and build that foundation, build that trust for the guy behind center.

“It’s not really about me, but if I’m C.J. (Stroud) or one of the quarterbacks at the line, that’s where I have a lot of confidence on ‘That guy knows what he’s doing,’” Frye said. “‘That guy’s going to make the call and that guy’s going to do his job, so I can just do my job.’”