From NAIA Title to SEC’s Missouri, Fryar ready for new opportunity

Transfers in college sports are much more common these days than a few years ago but Parker Fryar’s place on the South Dakota Coyote football roster still comes with unique circumstances. 

For one thing, Fryar, an inside linebacker with two years of eligibility remaining, is moving up a few notches to play at the FCS level in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. For another, he really liked where he was before he became a Coyote. 

Call it a new challenge then from a guy who has a history of embracing this kind of thing. 

The 6-3, 225-pound linebacker earned All-America honors a year ago for the Northwestern College Red Raiders, who won the 2022 NAIA national title with a 35-25 win over Keiser (Florida) in the championship game.

Fryar, a team captain, was the Great Plains Athletic Conference defensive player of the year after leading the conference in tackles and tackles for losses. It was a dream season, you could say. Tough to top it, but also tough to leave it behind. 

“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to play Division I football,” Fryar said. “When the opportunity presented itself, I felt like if I looked down the road 10 years, I might regret not at least trying to do it. Northwestern was awesome. I enjoyed my time there and I’ll take with me a lot of friends and memories. But I like to push myself. I felt like making myself uncomfortable would be a good thing for me to do.”

Fryar’s older brother, Blake, is the Coyotes’ quality control coach. He was a quarterback at Northwestern and another one of the captains for the 2022 title team. 

The Fryars arrived at USD without a plan in place to end up at the same school. It still works, though. 

“We both had separate journeys that brought us to South Dakota,” Parker said. “But Blake being here was definitely a factor in deciding this was where I was going to go. It’s been fun – I call him ‘Coach’ now on the field when we’re joking around. It’s great having a familiar face with the team.”

For his part, the younger Fryar has very quickly adjusted to a new defensive system. The transition to seeing bigger and faster offensive linemen, not to mention running backs and wide receivers, is a challenge. It is to be expected with a jump from NAIA to FCS football, right? Part of the deal was to make himself feel uncomfortable. There will most likely be instances on Thursday night when the Missouri Tigers will be doing their best to make him feel uncomfortable.

“There have definitely been some adjustments,” Fryar said. “Getting through that is something my coaches have helped me with a lot. I can thank my teammates, too. Guys like Brock Mogensen, Stephen Hillis, Cannon Blauser, Matt Medill, Cade Parker – there’s a bunch of guys on this roster who have spent a lot of time in the program. Learning from them has been awesome.”

Fryar will be backing up Hillis at the Sam linebacker position going into the season. An aptitude for picking things up quickly, and for knowing football in general, definitely figured in landing a spot on the two-deep. 

“Parker is a stand-up guy,” said inside linebackers coach Elijah Hodge. “I was pretty impressed with how quick he was able to pick up our defense. There were a lot of things that were new to him but when you’re very intelligent and you work hard to understand things like he does, it really wasn’t as much of an obstacle as one might assume.”

Fryar is targeting med school after graduating. For sure, it's off in the distance yet but in some ways it’s a dream that has been with him for years. In middle school, he had osteochondritis dissecans in both knees with surgeries six weeks apart. Both have been perfect ever since.

“My doctor was a really cool doctor,” Fryar said. “I think that experience really drove me to think about a medical career.”

He was interested enough to start watching surgeries on YouTube. When he had another surgery – this one on his shoulder – he was able to ask a lot of questions about what exactly was taking place. 

“They can take pictures of what is going on during a surgery and they can talk to you about how they fixed it,” Fryar said. “I think that patient-doctor interaction and being able to provide something like that for someone who really needs it is so cool. I know when you get to med school you might become interested in things you haven’t even thought of yet but right now I’d really like to pursue sports medicine and possibly become an orthopedic surgeon.”

With two years as a Coyote ahead, Fryar is looking forward to becoming a vital part of the Coyote defense. It will be interesting to see that progress both from a physical standpoint and as a smart football player who will bring a comprehensive knowledge of his duties to games and practices.

“He’s not a young guy out there running around wild-eyed,” Hodge said. “He has already played a lot of football – he was an All-American – so others have already thought a lot of his abilities. In that way he brings a level of understanding and perspective to the room that we might not have without him being here.”