He’s only 41 but he’s been coaching for 18 years at six college football programs and is fresh off winning a national championship as the offensive line coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes .

Now the new offensive line coach for the Arizona Cardinals , Justin Frye can’t wait to show his players what he is all about.

He already knows a few of them. He coached left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. at Ohio State, when wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. played. He also coached backup center Jon Gaines II at UCLA.

As for the rest of Arizona’s O-linemen, Frye said he will show his true colors right from the start.

“They’re going to feel and sense from me that I’m not an old, curmudgeon guy that’s just going to sit back and yell and do this, and I’m not the new-age guru that’s got all the answers,” he said Wednesday during his introductory news conference at the Cardinals’ Tempe training facility. “I’m in it with them.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

“That was the way when I was a college coach and it’s going to be that way as a pro coach because there’s a center, two guards and two tackles and all five guys have to do their job. And it’s my job to make sure I maximize who they are, and that we get the right people doing the right jobs.”

Frye, a former offensive lineman at Indiana University, is already waist-deep into poring over practice tape and game film since his hiring was announced a week ago.

“You can spin yourself into a web of watching too much, watching the minutia or the pebbles,” he said, “and then the boulder is going to roll your ass over up and down the hill.”

Frye, who replaces Klayton Adams, now the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, began his duties with the Cardinals by watching game film from last season first. He studied the flow of each game, how certain players responded after negative plays, and how the O-line rode the wave on positive possessions when one successful drive turned into two or three more.

Then he began breaking things down individually, pinpointing every player’s particular skill set from a technique perspective. He wrote down three or four things he liked that he hopes to enhance, and three or four things that need to get better, be it in pass protection scheme or run-game assignments.

The key, he said, is trying to keep it simple. And when it comes to what type of traits he likes best in a lineman, it’s these three things: “Do they love ball? Can they learn ball? And can they execute what you’re asking them to do?”

Frye likes most of what he’s seen. Last season, the Cardinals finished seventh overall in rushing offense (144.2 yards per game) and allowed the fifth-fewest sacks (30).

“The word of the day would probably be ‘excitement.’ There’s an identity here,” Frye said. “You clean up some things that weren’t good, you scratch what itches, and then you try to enhance and supplement what was really good. Having an identity ... that breeds confidence and confidence breeds success. And you can see that on the tape.”

The past month, since Ohio State beat Notre Dame for the CFP national title, has been a whirlwind.

“A blur,” Frye described it. “The confetti’s falling and you’re there celebrating with your guys and all the work and everything you put into it. ...

“You get home, you take a breath, and then you keep your kids on the team. The transfer portal, the college free agency, your head is on a swivel all the time. And then you’re right on the road recruiting, so the celebration of that was not until the dead week (later on).”

Getting a phone call from Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon asking him to join his staff in Arizona was “an influx of juice,” Frye said.

It was also like instant karma. Frye said he could tell this would be a good fit for him simply because of his conversation with Gannon and the “alignment” and “vision” the head coach has created entering his third year at the helm.

Frye said Johnson Jr., Harrison Jr. and Gaines gave him the scoop on “what the real inner-workings were like,” and it made him feel even more comfortable that “the fit was a square peg in a square hole.”

Despite his vast coaching experience, Frye knows he’s now a rookie at the NFL level. But the guy just loves this game, and it’s become his life.

“It’s the football component of it,” he said. “I’m just real excited when the foot hits the ball, and it’s kicked off. It’s ball! It’s what everyone strives to do. It’s what everyone watches. That’s your job. So just being a small part of that, it’s going to be fun.”