I got to know Justin while covering the Hoosiers for The Herald-Times. In reading your post, I thought of a story I wrote in 2007 in which he talked about his coaching ambitions.
Frye inspired by father and Hoeppner
New Hoosier football assistant never worries about third-and-long in life
By Doug Wilson
August 9, 2007
As Justin Frye helps instruct Indiana’s offensive linemen, he notices sometimes that he’s using his dad’s words.
That’s not surprising for Frye, a 2006 IU team captain, who has started his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Hoosiers.
Frye grew up on football. His dad, Kevin, a tight end and fullback on IU’s 1979 Holiday Bowl team, was the coach at Elwood High School for years until losing a seven-year battle with cancer and brain tumors in May 2006.
As Frye helps coach the Hoosiers, he also uses the words of Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner, who died in June after an 18-month battle with a brain tumor.
“Football is life sped up,” is one of Hoeppner’s phrases that Frye has adopted, using it to describe, for instance, how you never give up on third and long.
In football and in life, when Frye has faced third and long, he has worried more about others than himself, a trait he inherited from his dad who was always concerned about how his cancer affected his players and students.
With the IU offensive line desperately short on experience last season, Frye willingly moved from left tackle to his fifth different starting position, center, to help the team. He says his attitude is to always try to figure out how he can make a situation better.
“ I lost my dad and it was awful, but now my mom and my sister need me to be there for them, so that’s what I’m doing,” he said. “Coach Hep passed away and a lot of the guys have come to me because my dad died, that’s my spot right now. I think of my dad and Hep every day, but you’ve got to keep going.”
IU offensive line coach Bobby Johnson said Frye is one of the few offensive linemen he’s worked with who understands not just his job, but the bigger picture of the entire game. That comes from learning from his dad from a young age, Johnson said.
“You can see it in the way he talks about things,” Johnson said. “He understands football, not just line play and I think that has a lot to do with it.”
Johnson said that if he’s ever in a position to hire assistant coaches, Frye’s a guy he would definitely try to hire.
“He’s good with the players,” Johnson said. “He’s good with the Xs and Os and he’ll be a good recruiter when it comes to that time.”
Frye was talking with agents about taking a run at a pro career when Johnson called him in December to offer him a job as a graduate assistant. Having long known he wanted to be a coach like his dad, Frye accepted the offer.
Now, Frye says his ultimate goal is to become an assistant coach at Indiana because he loves IU and Bloomington and considers them home. His dream beyond that goal is to, years from now, advance beyond assistant coach.
“If I’m the head coach at Indiana University, now that’s an achievement,” he said.
http://ww.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2007/08/09/iusports.qp-0432870.sto
