Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye is leaving for the Arizona Cardinals, a source confirmed Saturday.
ESPN first reported Frye, who spent three seasons with the Buckeyes, was expected to also be the Cardinals’ offensive line coach.
He had been in the last year of a contract with Ohio State that expired Friday. The deal was last extended in 2023.
It will be the first NFL coaching job for the 41-year-old Frye. Since he was first a graduate assistant at Indiana in 2007, he had spent all 18 of his years in coaching in college.
Even while on the road recruiting this week, a shift to the league had seemed possible. Frye was reported to have also interviewed for the same role with the Chicago Bears.
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The move to Arizona will reunite him with Paris Johnson Jr., the former All-American with the Buckeyes who is the Cardinals’ starting left tackle. Frye coached Johnson when he was a junior in 2022. The Cardinals drafted Johnson in 2023 with the sixth overall pick.
During his tenure, Frye drew scrutiny for trouble on the recruiting trail. The Buckeyes signed only three high school offensive linemen in their latest recruiting class, and among their last 11 offensive line signees, only two were ranked in the top-100 of the composite rankings compiled by 247Sports.
But Frye was instrumental in helping the Buckeyes to manage an offensive line that was beset by injuries during their championship run.
As the Buckeyes navigated the expanded College Football Playoff to win their first national title in a decade, they used six different starting offensive line combinations, including two in the postseason.
The setbacks were significant. Both starting left tackle Josh Simmons and center Seth McLaughlin, who won the Rimington Trophy, were lost to season-ending injuries during the regular season.
Simmons injured his left knee at Oregon in October, and McLaughlin tore his left Achilles tendon in a practice a month later.
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To compensate for the losses, Ohio State bumped left guard Donovan Jackson to left tackle in place of Simmons and used a variety of rotations in the interior.
During the playoff run, the Buckeyes allowed only four sacks and outgained four opponents on the ground by a combined 392 yards.
“Coach Frye is a great offensive line coach,” right tackle Josh Fryar said last month ahead of the championship game. “He knows what technique to use on every single play. He busts his ass for us. Even though people give him hate all the time, I don’t understand. He’s a great human being. He just wants the best for us.”
Frye had ties to both coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, having worked with both of them during previous stops.
Before replacing Greg Studrawa as the Buckeyes’ offensive line coach in 2022, Frye had been the offensive coordinator for Kelly at UCLA.
He had also worked with Day on staffs at Boston College and Temple more than a decade ago.
The departure of Frye is poised to be the second from Ohio State’s staff since it won the title last week with a win over Notre Dame in the final.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left for the same role at Penn State, a hiring that was announced by the school on Monday.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,@joeyrkaufman or email him atjkaufman@dispatch.com.
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