Most of the focus during a college football season, especially from players engrossed in the day-to-day of it, understandably centers on what’s happening in the moment.
Nicholas Petit-Frere, however, enjoys taking a step back. The introspective right tackle likes to look around and see the different paths he and his teammates take.
“Everyone has different stories. Everyone has different paths that they go through,” Petit-Frere said on Tuesday afternoon. “Some guys are the big, highly-touted guys and they take a while for them to go and get their start, and other people are like guys that you've never even heard of but they come in the freshman year and they're ready, rocking and rolling.”
Petit-Frere might not have meant to do so, but he essentially offered the short-hand description of how he and fellow starting offensive tackle Thayer Munford have developed in Columbus.
Through three weeks, they have been the two bright spots on an offensive line that has had some issues on the interior. The pair of bookends successfully keeping Justin Fields upright week after week. Together, they have yet to give up a sack and have only allowed a single quarterback pressure, per Pro Football Focus, while also carving up opposing front sevens on the ground to create lanes for Master Teauge and Trey Sermon. Their prowess over the weekend led to the coaching staff grading them out as the only two champions on the line, with Petit-Frere earning co-offensive player of the game honors.
Ohio State OT duo Thayer Munford & Nicholas Petit-Frere
— PFF College (@PFF_College) November 10, 2020
Pass-blocking snaps: 110
QB pressures allowed: 1
QB sacks: 0 pic.twitter.com/TkDmSX7C9g
But to Petit-Frere’s original point, they didn’t arrive at this instant in a similar manner.
By the time he got to campus, he was already known as the big-name, five-star recruit corralled by Urban Meyer and his coaching staff to eventually become a multi-year starter in a Buckeyes uniform. He represented the future of the position. But weighing 271 pounds – after gulping down three pounds of water to minimize embarrassment in front of Mickey Marotti – he needed multiple years to develop into the impact Big Ten lineman many expected of him when he signed.
Unlike Munford, a borderline top-300 recruit who shined early and earned the starting left tackle job as a sophomore, Petit-Frere needed time to mold both his body and offensive tackle technique. Munford, a year older and a starter by the time the current right tackle pulled into Columbus, offered him whatever assistance he could muster.
“Thayer was one of the first people I met here through Ohio State,” Petit-Frere said. “He kind of took me under his wing, especially when I first got here, because he saw me as a little brother kind of deal. Like, someone that was kind of going through everything and trying to learn the offense and trying to get comfortable at Ohio State.”
Munford started as Petit-Frere redshirted in 2019. The next year, he once again protected the quarterback’s blind side, with Petit-Frere falling short of Branden Bowen in the competition to start at right tackle.
Finally, this fall, Munford and Petit-Frere have their long-awaited chance to play together, and they’re taking full advantage of it.
“He's been a big help for me, from the summer and the spring this year especially with me getting into a starting role,” Petit-Frere said. “He's inspired a lot of confidence in me, and he has a lot of things that he's taught me to make me better every single week and every single day through practice and through games.”
Petit-Frere has performed like the five-star stud analysts once viewed him as, and Munford proved himself correct when he said people will see a “different Thayer” this fall. Unexpectedly, they’ve turned into the backbone of an otherwise rocky offensive line.
On the interior, the trio of left guard Harry Miller, center Josh Myers and right guard Wyatt Davis are continuing to work out the kinks.
Davis, a first-team All-American in 2019, has been the brightest spot among the three of them, though even he didn’t grade out as a champion on Saturday. Myers, thought to be a Rimington Trophy candidate, played one of his worst games as a Buckeye over the weekend. He’ll be seeking a bounceback performance against Maryland in a few days.
Miller followed an up-and-down starting debut against Nebraska with a solid performance versus Penn State, leading offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson to point to him as someone who had possibly the biggest leap between the first and second weeks. But on Saturday, he committed three second-quarter holding penalties, whiffed on a couple of blocks and didn’t play with the consistency and power that Greg Studrawa needs.
“Those are always hard moments,” Petit-Frere said. “I think he handled it well. He's going to improve and keep getting better. We're going to practice hard. Harry's the last person I have any worry about when it comes to things like that. He's such a hard worker. He's put in so much time and effort on and off the field. He's one of the guys that watches some of the most amount of film that we have here. He studies the hardest, and he plays with grit and determination. Harry handled it well, and I think he's going to keep performing well and keep doing the things that he needs to do to get better.”
As Miller, Myers and Davis figure out what’s wrong and move to correct some things, Petit-Frere and Munford have taken the lead up front.
The right tackle, a first-team starter, has been arguably the top-performing offensive lineman through three games. Ryan Day said Petit-Frere would “be in the conversation” as the most improved player on the team from last year to this fall. Munford, yet to give up a sack at left tackle, is playing at perhaps his highest level yet in his third year as a starter.
“It's super rewarding because we're winning games, you know?” Petit-Frere said. “It's just a great feeling being a part of that and feeling that I have an investment in how we're winning games.”
