In easily the least surprising aspect of his transfer portal journey, former Notre Dame wide receiver and auditioning cornerback Lorenzo Styles announced Saturday, minutes after the NFL Draft had concluded, that his next college stop will be Ohio State.
It took just eight days to finalize a reunion with brother Sonny Styles, a safety and sophomore-to-be, and three other Pickerington Central High School teammates on the Buckeyes roster.
Of the 12 Irish players who have taken the portal plunge since the start of the 2022 season, the 6-foot-1, 192-pound junior becomes the first of them to pop up on Notre Dame’s 2023 schedule. The Irish host the Buckeyes Sept. 23 at Notre Dame Stadium.
The transfer portal closes for the offseason for new submissions at the end of the day Sunday.
There was plenty of pull for Lorenzo Styles to pick OSU the first time, coming out of high school, including the fact that his father, Lorenzo, had been a standout linebacker there ahead of a six-year NFL career.
Styles was the second-highest-rated player in Notre Dame’s 27-player 2021 class, No. 56 overall and behind only five-star offensive tackle Blake Fisher (No. 26). Fourteen members of that class are no longer on the Irish roster before their junior seasons begin, including three medical hardships.
Styles started off strong at Notre Dame, becoming in 2021 the second-most prolific freshman wide receiver of the 12-year Brian Kelly Era (24 catches for 344 yards and a TD). Only Kevin Stepherson (25 for 462 yards and 5 TDs in 2016) was more productive.
Styles went on to lead ND’s depleted wide receiver corps in receptions in 2022, Marcus Freeman’s first season as head coach, but his numbers weren’t markedly better (30 for 340 and a TD), and he developed a penchant for unforced drops.
The latter seemed to largely go away this spring, but other receivers started to leap him on the depth chart. The second-to-last week of spring practice Styles began to dabble at cornerback. By April 18, four days before the spring-ending Blue-Gold Game, it became a full-blown experiment.
Styles was made available for interviews after that practice, along with some of the other Irish cornerbacks.
Both Freeman and Styles described Styles' tryout at cornerback as a decision made by Styles. Freeman encouraged him to give it a try.
"I felt like I could really help the team there," Styles said, "be a great player there, so that’s what it really came down to.
“Athletically, I feel like I’m a pretty gifted athlete. It’s just the technical skills. Growing up, I had that defensive background. I’ve had some defensive coaches. Being honest, when I came into college, I really didn’t have a receivers coach who I worked on that much.
“So that was a big transition for me when I first came here, just to get to the point where I’m at now. This transition is actually going to be a lot less, because I grew up doing that a lot of the time.”
Two days later, Styles was drafted as a two-way player for the Blue-Gold Game. And yet, there wasn’t a clear path on either side of the ball for him to be a starter in the fall. The next day, April 21, he was in the portal.
“It all goes back to I love playing football,” Styles said after the April 18 practice. “I’m a great football player. That can be on offense or defense, special teams, whatever that may be. Any way I can make an impact.”
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