Strike up the band! Blue-chip wide receiver Lorenzo Styles jumped into Notre Dame’s 2021 class, roughly 24 hours after top 60 wide receiver Deion Colzie did the same. Like Colzie, Styles lives in the home city of another college football blue-blood; Colzie in Athens, Styles in Columbus. Getting these guys is remarkable anyway, but even more so in Styles’s case as he’s an Ohio State football legacy.
Absolutely fantastic work by the staff to get on Styles early, make him feel wanted and comfortable, and seal the deal. The 6’1″, 170-pounder bumps the 2021 class up to #3 in the 247 Composite; at #102 overall himself, he’s somewhat unbelievably only the sixth-highest ranked commit in the 2021 class. I believe this is what is typically called a “hot streak”…
“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”
100% COMMITTED pic.twitter.com/8UlD5I2yT4
— gozozogo (@LorenzoStyles3) October 13, 2019
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9577), #102 overall, #21 WR, #4 in OH
247Sports — 4 star (93 rating), #120 overall, #18 WR, #6 in OH
Rivals — 4 star (6.0 rating), #28 overall, #4 WR, #2 in OH
ESPN — 4 star (82 rating), #205 overall, #50 WR, #6 in OH
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (95 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame and Ohio State, who was recruiting him as a DB/WR, Styles had offers from Auburn, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, among many others.
Highlights
Man, there’s a lot to like here. Styles is explosive in and out of his cuts and has excellent top speed. He shows soft hands and does an excellent job of snatching the ball out of the air. He also has excellent body control, as exhibited on the first play here when he toe-tapped the back of the end zone. Maybe the best part of the film though is how physical Styles plays on defense – he’s tough kid who brings it on every play here.
Impact
The 2020 receiver class, with Jordan Johnson, Xavier Watts, and Jay Brunelle, will pose an obstacle for the 2021 class. Even so, it’s hard to see Colzie and Styles staying off the field for too long. Styles has a lot of polish on this sophomore film – I could definitely see him coming in ready to contribute early and often. Even if he doesn’t contribute right away I believe he’s starter material for sure.
Welcome to the Irish Family, Lorenzo!
“With that being said, I know my values” is so great
I read that he ran the fastest 60′ in the state of Ohio last year and the 4th fastest in the nation.
But try keeping that speed up for 60m! It’s almost 3.28x harder
The coaching staff has clearly adjusted their view on recruiting skill talent since the Clemson game (and maybe it started a little before that) given they have 3 top 100 receivers and a top 50 back commuters since which has to exceed the previous 9 cycles combined.
I guess my question is what was the thought process before then. Because get a bunch of dudes who can ball out seems like an obvious formula. Did they think they could just manufacture offense with the right calls and a bunch of solid players? Either way the influx of skill talent is very exciting
I’m curious too, is it just good fortune now that their message is being better received by kids more inclined to take the ND experience instead of staying at Big State U? Surely being 26-4 in the last 30 games can’t hurt, this is a very good program that has a natural pitch to go to these guys and say “look we’ve got the OL and are building up the defense too, we just need playmakers to help us be the next Clemson so why don’t you come be our Tee Higgins/Justyn Ross?” That sounds like what they’re basically pitching, and it’s a pretty good logic.
I mean Kelly basically personally did everything possible to get Amon-Ra, not like a light bulb went off to say “hey, maybe we should get 4/5 star guys instead of 3/4 stars”, but it is very interesting why the skilled 2020/2021 ‘crooting is so much more improved than the late teens.
Keep in mind too that in the same time span that we’ve gone 26-4 we’ve had a new and invigorated coaching staff. It makes sense that if the coaching changes have made such a difference on the field that they might make a significant difference off the field as well.
We’ve won a bunch of games. Recruiting classes get better when you win a bunch of games.
I will say I hadn’t given much thought to just how much the recruiting timeline has moved up these days. We had no 2020 prospects on campus which is kind of wild.
But it does mean the fruits of a 26-4 stretch and college football playoff appearance take longer to come to fruition also.
I guess all these reasons probably add up to where we’re at which I’m good with
Yup — I’m not sure the answer is that complicated. Although it helps to have a few super-talented kids out there who sincerely value education, as it sounds like Colzie and his family do.
I almost wonder if the focus in the late teens recruiting classes was improving the OL and DL. Our line play was holding us back with not having the ability to reload at those positions, especially on the DL. The thinking maybe being that this was the two positions that would allow the floor of the team to be raised the most and would allow for stability for the program.
I would argue that we have not achieved that level of stability. Our recruiting on the OL has been great and even the past 5 years has been much, much better on the DL. Now we are in a position to go after and focus on the elite skill position players in addition to the lines.
I’m not discounting winning by any means, but perhaps the combination plays a role. Also, I’m glad pretty sure that building the program via the OL and DL is the way to go. We saw Weis have a ton of shiny toys at the skill positions but it didn’t do us a whole lot of good in winning games. It seems that to be a good/great team you can focus on the OL and DL but to be elite you need that plus great skill players.
Hopefully we are ready to take the next step to elite!
I’m not sure why we trying to recruit top OL and DL would preclude us from doing the same at the skill positions. There have definitely been top-10 receivers like JuJu Smith and Alan Lazard that ND was very close to landing but missed on and others that we pursued but never had much traction with. There are also guys like Justin Brent, ESB, Miles Boykin and Javon McKinley who were on the edge of top-10 receiver status that ND landed but who haven’t quite replicated the success that Tate, Floyd and others had for a variety of reasons.
I really just think that the top skill prospects, generally speaking, are a somewhat different animal from a recruiting perspective and that they are more locked into programs that have been winning. To that end, I believe that reaching the playoffs last season was a big feather in ND’s cap, just to show everyone that we could take that step even if the result wasn’t at all favorable.
Great points. I’m not saying that my idea is the completely correct one but simply that it may be a small factor that goes beyond the obvious (and largely correct) reason that we are winning more.
I think my point was that the amount of time, emotional energy, and travel is finite and so there always has to be some priorities in recruiting. Clearly we did get a few good skill players and just missed on some others, but maybe that was because we were spending time and resources on OL and DL just a bit more than on other positions.
“but maybe that was because we were spending time and resources on OL and DL just a bit more than on other positions.”
I could be wrong, but I don’t sense that to be correct. It always seems like when Kelly gets on a plane, it’s for a RB/WR more than anything else. Long recruits all the skilled guys heavily. The OL just tend to fall in line generally pretty easily with position coach recruiting and ND picking who they want.
Similarly with DL, the gains there are mainly because of great work at the position coach level (Elston), more-so than the big coaches dedicating a ton of time to it, at the detriment of not being able to devote enough to skill spots. I also think (hope) this is where Taylor could improve over Denson if he too is able to be more impactful.
I’m not so sure that recruiting has improved. Throughout Kelly’s tenure at ND, almost every year his class rank about #10 except for year after the 2012 season. I guess it was 2014 when they were #2. I looked yesterday and the 2020 class is ranked #8 with the #8 most stars per player so this class is the one that should have seen a bump in rankings but so far it has not. It is a typical Kelly class.
As of 2017’s February signing day, ND had a new OC and new DC, a bunch of new assistants, a new strength coach, one of the hottest HC seats in the country (at least in public perception), a RB coach who couldn’t connect with kids, and had gone 4-8 the previous season and 22-16 over the previous three seasons.
Fast forward to now… The Irish have rising star talent at OC and DC, a bunch of firmly established assistants who have shown they can develop talent, one of the most frigid HC seats in the country, an energetic young RB coach who gets to wave around Christian McCaffrey as a testimonial, and have gone 5-1 this season and 27-4 over the last 2.5 seasons.
That pretty much explains it, honestly. Specifically regarding receivers, it helps that our passing offense has looked much more competent in 2018 and 2019 than it did in 2017. Part of the problem in our recruitment of Amon-Ra was that he was concerned about how much of a chance he’d get to shine if Wimbush was still under center. Probably nothing else mattered after JT Daniels reclassified to 2019, but it would’ve at least been closer if we looked like we could throw the ball at all in 2017.
I think our only weakness on recruiting trail these days is Lyght (at least based on rumors). I think he can certainly coach the position. It may be a little like Hiestand, where the players came and he could pick. However, they aren’t coming for him.
Looks fast. This is 5 star highlight tape. Colzie looks great, this kid looks better.
Considering our lack of CB recruiting, to put it nicely, I’m surprised we want him on offense, especially with the 2020, and other potentials for this class. Maybe my first comment it why.
Yeah, I would think he must want to play WR at the next level, obviously it’s a no-brainer to make him a CB otherwise if there’s any leeway. But if it takes having him as a WR to get the commitment, no problem at all in this case.
I wonder if he might prefer offense, to the degree that ND thought it might hinder their chances to sell him on playing defense.
Ohio State wanted him at DB first because they’re beyond loaded at WR in the 2020 and 2021 classes. Their 2020 class has four top 75 WRs – not a typo – and is headlined by 5* Julian Fleming, #3 overall. They also have a top 75 2021 WR committed already. They don’t need help at WR. I believe they told Styles they wanted him at DB and they’d let him play some WR, but I’m not sure.
I think Styles does prefer offense, which is no doubt a big part of why Ohio State didn’t click with him as much as you might think. Even so, it’s a big win for the staff to land a talent like this from Columbus. And there are 16 months left until 2021 signing day, so we’ll see what other CB options might develop.
I see that the recruiting has really fallen off there post Meyer.
So has the winning (it’s still early but…)
If they ever play someone halfway worth a damn, maybe we could begin to assess this. But their schedule to date has been nothing short of embarrassing.
I’ll give you that. However, they did dominate two pretty decent teams in Cincinatti (#36 in SP+) and Indiana (#25). True tests are coming.
ND’s best win is over a team that is 3-3 or a team that scored 9 points against Miami. Glass houses, stones, etc.
Something not to be overlooked. Our 2021 class is probably #2 is awesome names. I’d say we are only behind Wisconsin, who is putting together the name version of the Clemson class.