Justin Frye could have improved his job security by signing David Sanders Jr. Instead, Frye’s spot will be more coveted than ever at the start of the 2024 season.
Whether Frye will have the opportunity to stay as Ohio State’s offensive line coach beyond this season will likely always be determined by what happens on the field this fall. With two weeks to go before Ohio State’s season opener, the offensive line remains the Buckeyes’ biggest question mark. Whether that unit can take a significant step forward from last season, when its disappointing performance all year culminated in a dismal performance in Ohio State’s 14-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri, could determine the Buckeyes’ championship hopes.
Despite last year’s struggles, Ryan Day decided to keep Frye on the team because he believes in his ability to turn things around on offense this year. Frye’s ability to develop players is considered his greatest strength and he will have an opportunity to showcase his skills in that regard this year as the Buckeyes expect better performance from three returning starters – left tackle Josh Simmons, left guard Donovan Jackson and right tackle Josh Fryar – while a fourth, Carson Hinzman, competes with fellow third-year lineman Tegra Tshabola for the right guard spot alongside center Seth McLaughlin, who transferred from Alabama.
However, anything less than championship-caliber play from Ohio State’s offensive line this season should be considered unacceptable as Day and Chip Kelly evaluate whether Frye should stay with the team beyond this season, because his recruiting performance, where he was expected to be an improvement over former offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, has so far failed to meet expectations.
Signing Sanders, the top offensive tackle and second-best prospect in the 2025 class, was no easy win for Ohio State. But it was a must-have signing for the Buckeyes, who made him their clear top offensive line target for the 2025 cycle. That left them with no obvious Plan B if Sanders wanted to go elsewhere – which he did on Saturday when he committed to Tennessee.
Now less than four months away from the signing deadline, the Buckeyes have only signed two offensive players despite considering as many as five. They are close to signing one of the best offensive players in the class, No. 6 OT and 50th overall prospect Carter Lowe, but they always expected to win that contract because Lowe is a Toledo prospect. Their only other offensive player in the class, three-star center Jake Cook, was also considered a surefire win for the Buckeyes after they finally extended an offer to the Westerville product in June.
With Sanders no longer available, there are now just four offensive linemen in the class of 2025 with offers from Ohio State who have not yet committed: five-star offensive tackle Michael Fasusi of Texas, four-star lineman Malachi Goodman of New Jersey, three-star offensive lineman Jayvon McFadden of Maryland and unranked offensive lineman Atamai Matau of California. McFadden is the only one among them that the Buckeyes appear to be a serious candidate for, and his decision to drag his recruitment into the season is a concern for the Buckeyes, as he was considered a candidate to be committed by Ohio State after his official visit in June.
Sanders is just one of several top offensive line prospects from out of state heading elsewhere despite serious recruiting efforts by the Buckeyes. Highly touted offensive tackles Josh Petty, Jackson Lloyd and Micah DeBose and four-star guard Henry Fenuku all officially visited Ohio State in June, but Petty has since committed to Georgia Tech, while Lloyd and DeBose are headed to Alabama and Fenuku to Missouri.
The inability to close the deal on top out-of-state targets was a recurring trend on the offensive line in Frye’s first three years with the team. In his first two recruiting cycles with the Buckeyes in 2023 and 2024, Ohio State was able to sign just three out-of-state offensive linemen. Only one of them (Ian Moore, No. 168 overall prospect in 2024) was among the top 250 prospects in his class, according to 247Sports’ overall rankings. The only top-100 prospect Frye landed in any of those classes was Luke Montgomery, a lifelong Buckeye fan from Findlay, Ohio.
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2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
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|---|---|---|---|
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LUKE MONTGOMERY (#3 IOL, #92 GES, #2 OH) |
IAN MOORE (#5 IOL, #168 GES, #4 IN) |
CARTER LOWE (#6 OT, #50 OVR, #3 OH) |
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JOSHUA PADILLA (#11 IOL, #228 GES, #6 OH) |
GABE VANSICKLE (#17 IOL, #283 GES, #6 MI) |
JAKE COOK (#25 IOL, #427 OVR, #18 OH) |
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AUSTIN SIEREVELD (#15 IOL, #300 GES, #8 OH) |
DEONTAE ARMSTRONG (#33 OT, #386 OVR, #14 OH) |
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MILES WALKER (#33 OT, #501 OVR, #4 CT) |
DEVONTAE ARMSTRONG (#29 IOL, #445 GES, #18 OH) |
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If Frye can’t find recruiting success over the next four months, a coaching change on the offensive line could be in the cards, even if Ohio State’s offense returns to being an elite unit this season. Ryan Day parted ways with Greg Studrawa after the 2021 season due to Studrawa’s shortcomings as a recruiter, even though Ohio State had the best offense in the country in 2021. And Studrawa had several bigger recruiting successes at Ohio State, such as signing Jackson – a five-star talent from Texas in the class of 2021 – than any other Frye to date.
Frye has longstanding ties to both Day and Kelly, which likely helped keep him on the team this year despite last year’s offensive line woes. He worked alongside Day at Temple and Boston College from 2012-14 and for Kelly at UCLA from 2018-2021 before joining Ohio State’s staff in 2022.
However, Frye is the only full-time assistant coach on the team whose contract is currently expiring, suggesting Ohio State wanted to see more from Frye this year before deciding whether he would stay beyond this season.
With his recruiting numbers failing to improve so far, Frye’s offensive line will need to produce impressive results on the field this fall to justify his continued employment in a program where the best is the standard.
