Ohio State hiring assistant coach from Cincinnati

Ohio State is hiring Cincinnati cornerbacks coach Perry Eliano as its new safeties coach, per Letterman Row. Eliano has spent the past two seasons with the Bearcats and joins the Buckeyes’ program to replace Matt Barnes, who’s now the defensive coordinator at Memphis.

Eliano, 44, is a Killeen, Texas native who played defensive back at Stephen F. Austin from 1996-99. He’s worked in the coaching field since 2001, when he became a graduate assistant at his alma mater.

Eliano’s also had stops at Central Arkansas, Sam Houston, UTSA, Bowling Green and New Mexico. He was the defensive coordinator at BGSU in 2016 and 2017.

Eliano joins an Ohio State program that is coming off an 11-2 season.

Ohio State officially announces new associate head coach hire

Ohio State officially announced the hiring of UCLA offensive line coach Justin Frye on Tuesday morning. Ryan Day has named Frye as his new associate head coach as well as the Buckeyes’ new offensive line coach.

“I am thrilled to welcome Justin, his wife, Lauren, and their family to Ohio State and the football program,” Day said. “Justin and I have worked on the same staffs together and I’ve seen first-hand how good he is at developing his players as well building personal connections with them. I believe he’ll do great things here to enhance his room and our offense as a whole.”

Day and Frye worked two seasons at Boston College, 2013 and 2014. From 2013-17, with Day as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Frye served as the run game coordinator/offensive line coach.

Frye started his tenure at UCLA in February 2018 as offensive line coach. Just a few months later, in December of 2018, he received a promotion to UCLA’s offensive coordinator/offensive line coach.

In 2021, UCLA rushed for at least 200 yards in all eight wins and its average of 215.1 yards per game ranked 17th nationally. Zach Charbonnet led all Pac-12 running backs with seven 100-yard games during the season. UCLA improved its rushing yards average per game (230.6) by more than 70 yards per contest to rank 12th in the nation and second in the Pac-12.

The Bruins rated 21st nationally and second in the conference in total offense (455.0) and 20th in the nation, second in the league, in passing efficiency (154.68).

Prior to UCLA, Justin Frye spent five seasons as the run game coordinator/offensive line coach at Boston College. He also worked at Temple for two seasons after several seasons as a grad assistant at Florida and Indiana.

As a player, Justin Frye lined up along the offensive line for Indiana in the 2002-06 seasons.

On3’s Nikki Chavanelle contributed to this report.