Justin Frye could have bolstered his job security by landing a commitment from David Sanders Jr. Instead, Frye’s seat will be as hot as it’s ever been entering the 2024 season.
Whether Frye will have the opportunity to remain Ohio State’s offensive line coach beyond this season has always been likely to be determined by what happens on the field this fall. With two weeks to go until 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 play throughout the year culminated with a dismal performance in Ohio State’s 14-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri, could make or break the Buckeyes’ championship hopes.
Despite last year’s struggles, Ryan Day chose to keep Frye on staff with a belief in his ability to turn things around up front this year. Frye’s ability to develop players is regarded as his greatest strength, and he’ll have the opportunity to prove his chops in that regard this year as the Buckeyes look for improved play out of three returning starters – left tackle Josh Simmons, left guard Donovan Jackson and right tackle Josh Fryar – while a fourth, Carson Hinzman, is competing with fellow third-year lineman Tegra Tshabola to be the Buckeyes’ starting right guard alongside Alabama transfer center Seth McLaughlin.
Anything less than championship-caliber play from Ohio State’s offensive line this season, however, should be seen as unacceptable as Day and Chip Kelly evaluate whether to keep Frye on staff beyond this season. Because his performance as a recruiter, where he was supposed to be an upgrade over former offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, has yet to meet expectations.
Landing Sanders, the No. 1 offensive tackle and No. 2 overall prospect in the 2025 class, was never going to be an easy win for Ohio State. Yet it became a must-win recruitment for the Buckeyes as they made him their clear-cut top target along the offensive line for the 2025 cycle, leaving them without an obvious backup plan if Sanders chose to go elsewhere – which he did Saturday by committing to Tennessee.
Now, the Buckeyes find themselves less than four months away from signing day with only two offensive line commits in a class where they’ve considered taking as many as five. They are in line to sign one of the class’ top offensive tackles, No. 6 OT and No. 50 overall prospect Carter Lowe, but that was a recruitment they were always expected to win with Lowe being an in-state prospect from Toledo. Their only other offensive line commit in the class, three-star center Jake Cook, was also seen as a sure-fire win for the Buckeyes once they eventually offered the Westerville product in June.
With Sanders now off the board, there are only four offensive linemen with Ohio State offers in the 2025 class who remain uncommitted: Five-star Texas offensive tackle Michael Fasusi, four-star New Jersey lineman Malachi Goodman, three-star Maryland offensive lineman Jayvon McFadden and unranked California offensive lineman Atamai Matau. McFadden is the only one among them who the Buckeyes appear to be a serious contender for, and his decision to take his recruitment into the season is a concern for the Buckeyes as he was considered a candidate to commit to Ohio State after his official visit in June.
Sanders is just one of several top offensive line targets from out-of-state who are headed elsewhere despite serious recruiting pushes from the Buckeyes. Highly touted offensive tackles Josh Petty, Jackson Lloyd and Micah DeBose and four-star guard Henry Fenuku all made official visits to Ohio State in June, but Petty has since committed to Georgia Tech with Lloyd and DeBose going to Alabama and Fenuku committed to Missouri.
An inability to close the deal with top out-of-state targets has been a recurring trend along the offensive line in Frye’s first three years on staff. In his first two recruiting cycles with the Buckeyes in 2023 and 2024, Ohio State landed just three out-of-state offensive linemen. Just one of them (Ian Moore, No. 168 overall prospect in 2024) ranked among the top 250 prospects in his class per 247Sports’ composite rankings. The only top-100 prospect Frye landed in either of those classes was Luke Montgomery, a lifelong Buckeye fan from Findlay, Ohio.
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LUKE MONTGOMERY (#3 IOL, #92 OVR, #2 OH) | IAN MOORE (#5 IOL, #168 OVR, #4 IN) | CARTER LOWE (#6 OT, #50 OVR, #3 OH) | |
| JOSHUA PADILLA (#11 IOL, #228 OVR, #6 OH) | GABE VANSICKLE (#17 IOL, #283 OVR, #6 MI) | JAKE COOK (#25 IOL, #427 OVR, #18 OH) | |
| AUSTIN SIEREVELD (#15 IOL, #300 OVR, #8 OH) | DEONTAE ARMSTRONG (#33 OT, #386 OVR, #14 OH) | ||
| MILES WALKER (#33 OT, #501 OVR, #4 CT) | DEVONTAE ARMSTRONG (#29 IOL, #445 OVR, #18 OH) | ||
If Frye can’t conjure up some recruiting wins over the next four months, an offensive line coaching change could be on the table even if Ohio State’s offense reemerges as 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 No. 1 offense in the country in 2021. And Studrawa had several bigger recruiting wins at Ohio State, such as landing Jackson – a five-star prospect out of Texas in the 2021 class – than any Frye has had so far.
Frye has longstanding connections with both Day and Kelly, which likely helped keep him on staff for this year despite last year’s offensive line issues. He worked alongside Day at Temple and Boston College from 2012-14 and worked for Kelly at UCLA from 2018-21 before joining Ohio State’s staff in 2022.
That said, Frye is the only full-time assistant coach on staff who is currently coaching on an expiring contract, indicating that Ohio State wanted to see more from Frye this year before deciding whether to retain him beyond this season.
With a lack of improvement in his recruiting results to point to thus far, Frye’s offensive line will need to deliver impressive results on the field this fall to justify his continued employment in a program where best is the standard.
