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Florida State head coach Willie Taggart continues the process of filling out his staff today, as Greg Frey, currently the tackles/tight ends coach and run game coordinator at Michigan, will take the OL coaching job at FSU, as reported by Bruce Feldman.
The hiring of Frey makes sense for Taggart despite never having employed him before. After growing up in Clearwater, Frey was an offensive lineman at FSU under Bobby Bowden from 1992-1995, earning a ring on FSU’s first ever national championship team in 1993.
Although Taggart has never had Frey on his staff, Frey spent the 2017 season working under Jim Harbaugh, giving him a second-hand connection as Harbaugh was on Western Kentucky’s staff under his father during Taggart’s collegiate career at WKU.
Frey’s history coaching offensive lines is a storied one. He has been working with offensive linemen in some capacity for each of the last 18 seasons. His first job coaching linemen was at South Florida from 2000-2006. From there, he replaced Rick Trickett at West Virginia in 2007 before accepting a spot on Rich Rodriguez’ staff at Michigan, which he held from 2008-2010.
After Rodriguez’ firing, Frey ended up on the staff at Indiana. He stayed in Bloomington for six years, getting a promotion to co-offensive coordinator in 2014 and to associate head coach in 2016 while still working with the offensive line.
Over Frey’s illustrious coaching career, he has had 20 offensive linemen reach the NFL, an average of more than one per year. He also has a track record of recruiting offensive linemen, as he had a pair of blue-chip tackles committed to him at UM in his first year there.
Florida State’s staff under Taggart is shaping up to be substantially younger than Jimbo Fisher’s, and the addition of Frey will be one of the more drastic shifts. FSU’s offensive line coach will be dropping 24 years in age from Trickett at 69 to Frey at 45.
If Michigan OL coach Grey Frey takes the FSU OL job as has been rumored, 5-star OL Nicholas Petit-Frere says it would definitely impact his recruitment. Says it would be good to have a familiar face up there. Coach Taggart and the new staff have reached out to the 5-star.
— Tomahawk Nation (@Tomahawknation) December 30, 2017
Recruits like new FSU OL coach @GregFreyUM, that's a good hire for @CoachTaggart
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) January 5, 2018
For all updates on Taggart’s additions to the Florida State coaching staff, keep following Tomahawk Nation’s assistant coach tracker.