Among the offseason acquisitions in the transfer portal that were added by Ohio State, one of the bigger question marks is former Notre Dame wide receiver turned cornerback Lorenzo Styles Jr.
Styles is from Columbus, playing his high school football at Pickerington Central. The Buckeyes were barely beaten out by Notre Dame in his initial recruitment due to some dissent over where he’d play. But now, Styles is back with his home school and trying to hit the field as quickly as possible while changing positions.
“He’s come in and, really, you can see how competitive he is,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said at Big Ten Media Days Wednesday. “If you said give me one word to describe Lorenzo, I’d say he’s competitive. He’s there every day, he’s trying to win every drill and that’s a big part of our offseason, the competing part of it. So he’s really flourished in that area.”
Ohio State always viewed Styles as a defensive back, but coming out of high school he wanted to play on the offensive side of the ball out wide. It’s one of the bigger reasons why he chose the Fighting Irish at that time, as they had a plan for him there.
Styles had an alright start to his career catching passes in South Bend, Ind. In just nine games his freshman season he cut his teeth with 24 receptions for 344 yards and a touchdown. His sophomore campaign rolled around and he stagnated, however, with 30 catches for 340 yards and a score in 2022.
After spring practice at Notre Dame, Styles made the decision to change programs and positions.
“We recruited him as a corner to start with, he wanted to try wide receiver at Notre Dame,” Day said. “He’s come back and said, ‘I probably should have listened to you guys in the beginning.’ But that’s part of his journey.”
Growing up in Columbus, having a father that played for Ohio State in Lorenzo Styles Sr. and a brother currently on the team in Sonny Styles, Lorenzo is already ingrained in Buckeye culture. Day confirmed as much.
“He understands what it means to be a Buckeye because he grew up in Columbus and his brother is on the team,” Day said.
Overall, Day is excited to have Styles in the fold and hopes to see him contributing in short order.
“He’s got really good speed. He’s learning to play at the position, but if you just look at the skill set and (how he’s) moving around learning the defense, it’s been exciting to see somebody who has played on offense and so he has experience in games — it has to mean something,” Day said. “I think he’ll be able to contribute to special teams early on, and then hopefully find a role as the season rolls on.”
