Why Lorenzo Styles was ready for the challenge of playing cornerback at ND
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Lorenzo Styles doesn’t remember the moment he first convinced himself he could make an impact as a Notre Dame cornerback or the first practice he flipped sides of the ball to cover his fellow wide receivers.
But his first full practice as a cornerback came Tuesday in Notre Dame’s 12th spring practice ahead of Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game (2 p.m. EDT on Peacock).
“It all goes back to I love playing football,” Styles said after 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. Being able to play both ways or focusing on either, I can have an impact on the game.”
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Exactly where Styles will land on Notre Dame’s positional depth chart won’t be decided immediately. The expanded audition began Tuesday after Styles moved back and forth from offense and defense in recent practices. He already caught the attention of cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens in previous one-on-one drills.
“He’s very quick,” Mickens said. “He’s very strong. That’s what I’m realizing about him. He has a strong punch, which is effective when you’re pressing. He understands route recognition a lot right now. He’s a confident kid already, so you can tell that he wants the ball, too. So, it’s good.”
In starting to work at cornerback, Styles joined a secondary which contains a lot of players who have made various position switches throughout their careers. However, cornerback Cam Hart is the only one who knows what it’s like to switch from wide receiver to cornerback while at Notre Dame.
Hart, who was recruited by Notre Dame primarily as a wide receiver out of Olney (Md.) Good Counsel, made the switch to cornerback early in his freshman year.
“I think it’s different for me, because I was so close to playing defense, like it was my freshman year,” Hart said. “I had just been playing defense. For him, he already had two, three years under his belt at receiver. So that’s two, three years further removed from playing DB.
“So, I think switching his mindset is the thing. Lorenzo's an athletic freak, as we all know. He works hard. He loves football, so it is not going to be anything physical. It's not going to be talent. It's just going to be a mindset flip. And that's going to take a little while, but it'll get there eventually.”
The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Styles wasn’t simply a wide receiver on the roster in his first two seasons at Notre Dame. The former Rivals100 prospect caught 54 passes for 684 yards and two touchdowns in his freshman and sophomore seasons combined. His 30 receptions last season were more than any Notre Dame player outside of All-America tight end Michael Mayer’s 67.
The trajectory of Styles’ receiving career changed a bit in the second half of last season after he proved to have an issue with drops. According to Pro Football Focus, Styles dropped four passes in the first seven games of the season. He dropped two more in the final six games to finish with a team-high six. Mayer had the second-most drops with four, but he did so on 101 targets. Styles was targeted 47 times last season.
The passing game production from Styles tanked in the final six games as well. His 23 catches for 287 yards and one touchdown in the first seven games included six games with at least a pair of receptions. He caught more than one pass only twice in the last six games to finish with seven receptions for 53 yards during that stretch.
“I just had a little bit of a mental challenge, but I definitely got past that,” Styles said. “I’ve been making plays all spring ball. I feel real confident gaining trust with the quarterback when I was playing receiver, gaining my trust back with the coaches. I feel really good.”
A leaping catch by Styles as a receiver was among the ND-produced highlights shared on video from Saturday’s closed intrasquad scrimmage. He could still be used as a playmaker in the Irish offense, so it’s important that those skills stay sharp as well.
Styles hasn’t played on both sides of the ball since he starred at Pickerington (Ohio) Central outside of Columbus. Rivals ranked him as the No. 6 wide receiver and No. 56 overall prospect in the 2020 class. Most colleges were open to the idea of Styles playing either wide receiver or cornerback for them.
Styles selected wide receiver at Notre Dame.
“I was a little bit — I wanted to catch touchdowns,” Styles said. “But on defense, if you get an interception and take it to the house, you can score touchdowns too.”
Styles’ father, who shared his own name with his oldest son, played linebacker at Ohio State and for six seasons in the NFL. Styles’ younger brother, Sonny, is a safety entering his sophomore season for the Buckeyes.
“Growing up, I had that defensive background,” Lorenzo Styles said. “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.”
The transition Tuesday went well.
“If I’m being honest, it felt like riding a bike a little bit,” Styles said. “I was out there today and felt really good, really confident. I don’t fully grasp the defense yet, just because I’ve only been in like one or two meetings. So that was a little bit hard for me. Then there’s definitely some technical things [to work on].
“Already playing in the college game, I’m already caught up with the pace of the game and the speed of it. I felt good today.”
Styles might have a little bit of an advantage covering the wide receivers he’s been practicing with earlier this spring and in previous seasons.
“I’ve been in the meetings with them. I know what they’re thinking a little bit,” Styles said. “I have an idea of what the offense is trying to do. So it makes it a little bit easier on me. I love going against those guys. We have some great players at wideout. It’s fun going against them in practice.”
When Styles was playing receiver, he liked to pick Mickens’ brain as well to get advantages over the cornerbacks. Now he has even more to learn from Mickens.
“He’s a great coach,” Styles said. “Even before, like when I was playing receiver, I was asking him, ‘What do the DBs think here when I do this type of release or do these different types of things?’ So we already had that relationship. Now it’s just transferring to a defensive mind.”
With how quickly Mickens transformed Benjamin Morrison from a June-enrolled freshman to a Freshman All-American last season, it’s not unreasonable to believe Styles could soon become a meaningful contributor in a cornerback group that’s already been flexing its depth this spring.
He’ll need to learn Mickens’ cornerback motto of DMM (Deny My Man) and the three-pronged cornerback creed of playing with great effort, playing fast and being violent first. The nuances will come later.
“We’ll just grow him mentally, grow him with technique. That takes a little time,” Mickens said. “Repetition is a big part of that. Having a mature group, they’re going to help him a lot in the summertime, getting out there with techniques and things of that nature.
“Mentally, we’ll progress him. Part two of that creed is play fast, so knowing what to do and understanding the little details, that’s what we have to do.”
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