As far as their projected career trajectories, Justin Frye can’t quite relate to Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones.
A five-star recruit in the class of 2020, Johnson has long been pegged as a potential first-round NFL draft pick. Josh Myers once said something would have to go wrong for the Cincinnati native not to win an Outland Trophy during his collegiate tenure.
At 6-foot-8 and 360 pounds, Jones has physical gifts that make NFL scouts salivate and a year of starting experience under his belt at the highest level of college football to boot. With a second in 2022, Jones hopes to approach first-round status himself.
For the first-year offensive line coach of the Buckeyes, the expectations during his own college career were never so high.
“Personally, I wouldn't know (if being an NFL prospect adds pressure to a college player). I was always, ‘He's a starter, he played a lot of games, he was tough.’ All those adjectives of, ‘He's a tough guy, he's a great kid, he's a smart football player,’ which really means you're just not good enough,” Frye said last month. “So I never had that problem. I would assume so. But Paris, Dawand, all those guys that are coming into the back end of their career now, start seeing the stuff, they're locked in.”
With that humble anecdote, Frye might have been selling his own playing days a bit short. The Ellwood, Indiana, native played five seasons with the Hoosiers from 2002-06, and even set the program record with 45 straight starts on the offensive line. During his final season with Indiana, Frye was voted both a team captain and the team’s top offensive lineman.
Now Frye must help imbue Johnson and Jones with the type of technical prowess he’s refined in his 15-year college coaching career in order for both of them to reach their goals and become early-round NFL draft picks. If Ohio State’s starting tackles manage to make the most of their obvious ability, it could mean championship banners are soon to be raised in Columbus by the end of the 2022 season.
"They're just workers. They just want to be great."– Justin Frye on Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones
By the sound of things this spring, Johnson and Jones aren’t cutting corners as they pursue the aforementioned objectives.
“I get videos and calls from Dawand at home right now when he's on his break like, ‘Coach, I'm doing this set. Is this good?’ They're just workers. They just want to be great,” Frye said. “So whatever you guys write, whatever is on the TV, yeah, that's out there. You can't say they don't see it. But I just have a good feel with these guys right now. Like they just want to work and be their best and whatever happens is supposed to happen.”
After starting all of last season at right guard, Johnson is expected to make his debut as Ohio State’s starting left tackle in the Buckeyes’ Week 1 matchup. The No. 1 tackle and No. 9 overall prospect in the country in 2020, it’s a role Johnson was always expected to play at Ohio State, sooner or later.
But as successful as the Princeton High School alum is projected to be at his natural position, Jones said Johnson got off to a bit of a slow start in his transition this offseason. Frye sung Johnson’s praises following the spring game, but also insinuated it may take a bit more offseason development to truly unluck Johnson’s sky-high potential.
“He's a highly skilled guy. He's gonna blow the combine out of the water. He's gonna test well, he's gonna jump well, he's gonna do the interview phase well,” Frye said. “I mean, he's a high-level player, we just, we're gonna get him there to play that way. Because ultimately that's what you got to do. When you press play, you gotta play like a first-round draft pick. So all these guys are trying to do that. Dawand on the other side, Luke Wypler on the inside, Matty Jones a guy that's coming out of his shell. All these guys, they're all just trying to maximize themselves.”
Dawand Jones returned to school for the express purpose of boosting his NFL draft stock. In order to do so, Ryan Day said he’ll need to be more consistent in protecting C.J. Stroud’s right side.
“I don’t think there’s any question he has the ability and he has the talent to be one of the better tackles in the country. Now whether he is or not, there’s certain things that he’s gonna have to get accomplished here in the offseason, and then during next season, to get to that point,” Day said this spring. “And consistency is gonna be one of them. But he’s done some good things and I think he knows what those things are that he wants to get done.”
And while Frye may not know exactly what it’s like to be dealing with the expectations that Jones is, he certainly has made an impression on his new pupil and fellow Indiana native.
“I bought in a lot. I listen to him. He’s like a mentor almost,” Jones said about Frye this spring. “Every time I need something, he’s right there. He’s like my right-hand man right now, I’d say. I didn’t even know that (he was from Indiana) until he told us on the first day. And definitely you can get that connection with our new coach.”
In the case of Frye and his two starting tackles at Ohio State, the pairing between student and teacher appears to be going just fine so far. Frye listed the development of the tackle position among his most positive takeaways from the spring, and that’s a good sign for the future of Johnson, Jones and the Buckeyes with the summer now underway.
“Just understanding the interworkings of the game,” Frye said. “I think the tackle position, Dawand's taken a lot of reps, Paris is moving back out there. Just the understanding of when I have help, when I don't have help. You know, from one slide side versus man side, what can I do cutting my splits, doing some things. So I think the interworking and the tools of the game really, those guys started to gravitate and grab onto of like, ‘Oh, this is the play where I can do this and this will help me,’ so that it eliminates, trims some of the fat on the plays that you’re doing.”
