Dustin Fry

Dustin Fry is in no hurry to get back into college football coaching.

He spends most of his time with his wife and two young boys in the hills of North Carolina. He helps out coaching offensive and defensive line at the local high school near Tryon.

He is savoring life, and that's hard to do these days in the coaching profession.

Fry was on the support staff at Clemson under Chad Morris, and then he got his big break when Morris landed the SMU job and asked Fry to come with him to Dallas.

After three years it was off to Arkansas, where the staff jumped into the deep end of the SEC and thought they'd have time to build something.

As it turned out they didn't last two years. Morris was fired after a 2-8 start in his second season.

Fry, who's from Summerville and played offensive line at Clemson, became disillusioned with the soul-sucking, non-stop routine of recruiting and preparing for games.

"It's become so intense in the profession that even when you win a game you only get to enjoy it for a few hours before you're breaking down film and getting started on the next game," he said.

Fry said he was texting just this week with South Carolina assistant Justin Stepp, who he was with under Morris at SMU and Arkansas.

"He asked me: 'Do you miss any of this shit?'" Fry said. "There's times I do. I'm not going to sit here and say college football is over for me. But I really enjoy the time I spend with my boys, picking the oldest up from school and being around him for a few hours every day. Just to have a real life -- I've made some good friends up here and it has nothing to do with football. 

"I've joined the golf club up here and met some great people. It's just awesome because I've never gotten to do anything like that. I've never gotten to be around non-coaching, non-football situations. It has been nice to step back from it for the last few years."