Tag: Lorenzo Styles Jr.

Midweek Recruiting Update: Johnson offer, latest on Colzie, and more

A look at the latest recruiting news for Notre Dame Football.

It’s safe to say that it’s been fairly quiet on the recruiting trail for the Irish. The coaching staff changed that last night, as they offered Northwestern commit Theran Johnson.

The instate cornerback has been committed to the ‘Cats since May 3 of this year, Johnson is a very solid prospect. He stands six-feet tall and weights 170-pounds. The offer should catch Johnsons attention as aside from Northwestern, every other one of his offers are from non-Power Five schools.

I love this offer, Johnson is a player that might take some time to develop, but getting some of the better talent in Indiana to play for the Irish is a positive development. Almost all of the top 25 players in the state are heading off to a Power Five team, the Irish only have a commit from Blake Fisher. Yes, he’s a big one, literally and figuratively, the top overall player in the state.

Looking ahead at what’s to come for the Irish, the potential for Georgia wide receiver Deion Colzie to rejoin the class is looking better and better as we inch towards his commitment date on the 28th of this month.

Tom Loy, of Irish Illustrated, changed his crystal ball pick to the Irish. That gives me a ton of confidence that as of right now, Colzie is trending to rejoining Lorenzo Styles Jr. as the wide receivers in the 2021 class.

Right now the class consists of nine players on offense: quarterback Tyler Buchner, running back Logan Diggs, Styles Jr., Fisher, offensive tackle Joe Alt, guard Rocco Spindler, center Pat Coogan and tight end’s Mitchell Evans and Cane Berrong.

The defensive commits are a group of nine as well: defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio, defensive ends David Abiara and Jason Onye, linebackers Prince Collie and Will Schweitzer, and defensive backs Philip Riley, Ryan Barnes, Chance Tucker and Justin Walters.

The group of 18 players ranks 12th at ESPN, 13th at 247Sports and 11th at Rivals. Brian Kelly has a solid group of three players committed in the 2022 class: offensive tackle Joey Tanona, tight end Jack Nickel and safety Nolan Ziegler.

It has been a bit slow, but with Colzie’s timeline to recommit set and spatula being brought out to flip Johnson, there could be some positive movement for the Irish. Stay tuned to Fighting Irish Wire for the latest in Notre Dame Football recruiting.

Could another Styles be headed to Notre Dame?

The Fighting Irish coaching staff are trying to have Sonny Styles, young brother to commit Lorenzo, join him in South Bend.

The Fighting Irish already have secured a commitment from one Pickerington Central star in Lorenzo Styles Jr. and there is plenty to be excited about his pledge. There could be another Styles on the way to South Bend as Lorenzo’s younger brother, Sonny was offered by Brian Kelly and his staff on the first of the month.

After watching Lorenzo’s highlights from their season opening win, I thought they could be making a move on the younger Styles soon. That’s exactly what happened as Sonny put on a show during a nationally televised game.

The Irish joined instate powerhouse Ohio State in offering the star sophomore, and once again more flip ideas went into many peoples minds. The Buckeyes have done well keeping the best talent in state, but the Irish are one of the very few schools that can pull elite talent out of Ohio. Recently, Notre Dame has pulled offensive lineman Zeke Correll, Tommy Kraemer and Liam Eichenberg away from their home state to play for the Blue and Gold.

Rivals once again revisited Lorenzo’s potential for a flip and both of their recruiting experts Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney don’t believe the Buckeyes will be able to. They actually see Michigan as Notre Dame’s biggest threat to flip Styles Jr., but I just don’t see that happening.

Back to Sonny, who seems to be on the verge of blowing up nationally, already with two Midwestern power programs after his pledge. Having a family member as a teammate is always something players will consider and when Lorenzo ultimately signs with the Irish, a build in recruiting advantage will be made.

The recruitment of Sonny is just beginning, but already having a relationship with the Styles family, father Lorenzo played for the Buckeyes, is an advantage that Kelly must take. Lorenzo Jr. is already asking Irish Nation to show his younger brother some love. The Irish coaching staff has already done that and hopefully they will once again be reunited on the field wearing the same colors.

Rivals compares Irish commit Styles Jr. to who?

Mike Farrell of Rivals, compares current Notre Dame commit Lorenzo Styles Jr. to a former five-star.

Fresh off of an opening day win for his Pickering Central team (check out his highlights here), Lorenzo Styles Jr. along with the rest of their updated Top 50 prospects were looked at who they most resemble at the next level.

The comparison that Rival’s Director of Recruiting Mike Farrell gave Styles Jr. was to former South Carolina Gamecock Chris Culliver. You maybe wondering why Styles Jr. has been compared to a defensive back in Culliver, but Farrell seems similarities in their projections as “Culliver was a five-star out of high school, who focused on offense but ended up as a defender in the NFL.”

This is not a bad thing for Styles Jr., as positional versatility is so important for players. Take a look at one of the best corners currently in the NFL in San Francisco’s Richard Sherman. While at Stanford, Sherman was a wide receiver for his first two years before moving over to cornerback his junior year. Fast forward to now and Sherman has a Super Bowl ring, 5 times he’s been to a Pro-Bowl and named to the NFL’s all-decade team for 2010’s. Sherman should end up in Canton as well, so it’s safe to say the move for him went well.

The Culliver comparison has more to do with ability than off-the-field antics, where the former Gamecock has had plenty of issues. Farrell sees Styles Jr. as having the same “speed and shiftiness” as Culliver’s.

The ceiling is high for Styles Jr., as he could end up playing on either side of the ball, but Farrell notes that he “will likely stay on offense.” Regardless, Blue and Gold nation are happy he’s going to suit up for the good guys next fall. Stay tuned as Rivals continues this series and Irish offensive tackle commit Blake Fisher is compared to a former collegiate star as well.

Watch: Irish commit Styles Jr. helps team win opener

Check out some highlight from Notre Dame Football commit Lorenzo Styles Jr’s season opening win on ESPN2.

In a separate side of the city battle, Notre Dame commit Lorenzo Styles Jr.’s Pickering Central team defeated Pickering North 35-9 during a nationally televised contest on ESPN2. Although Styles Jr. There was plenty of big time prospects on the field, even without Ohio State commit Jack Sawyer, who decided to skip his senior year and prepare to enroll early.

Check out these highlight in the game from Styles Jr., not all of them on the offensive side. He plays both sides for his Tiger team, something that could benefit him in his Irish career if wide receiver doesn’t work out. Don’t forget special teams as well, Styles Jr. was returning punts today as well.

It’s great to see Styles Jr. making clutch plays early in games. It shows he’s focused and ready to go.

These are the defensive skills we noticed. Styles Jr. is a threat on both sides of the ball.

The toughness really showed on this play, as Styles Jr. just did not want to be taken down and kept battling for the first down.

At the end of the day, the Irish commit made plays all over the field, as the broadcast team raved about the speed of Styles Jr. It should be noted at the his younger brother, Sonny, is also a very good prospect as he showed many schools that his future is bright as well. Hopefully, Brian Kelly and his staff noticed and could potentially reunite with his brother at the next level.

Notre Dame commits move in updated Rivals Top 250

Plenty of Irish commits saw movement with Rivals updated Top 250 prospects in the 2021 recruiting class.

We knew yesterday that Notre Dame commit Blake Fisher had earned the coveted 5th star, but what we didn’t know what where the rest of the Irish class would land in Rivals updated Top 250.

We know now where they landed and here is their movement, the ranking on the left was prior to the update.

Offensive tackle Blake Fisher 22 -> 18

Wide receiver Lorenzo style Jr. 39 -> 41

Quarterback Tyler Buchner 46 -> 80

Offensive guard Rocco Spindler 56 -> 59

Defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio 99 -> 100

Cornerback Philip Riley unranked-> 240

The majority of Notre Dame commits stayed in about the same range except Buchner, who fell 34 spots. Mike Farrell, Rivals national director of recruiting, explained Buchner’s fall as he “clearly changed his throwing style and gave us pause but we didn’t want to free fall him.” It wasn’t a free fall, but dropping that far in the rankings is still concerning.

Fisher made just a three spot move up, but enough to get him the 5th star. Farrell said this about the offensive tackles upward movement on their rankings: “Fisher was my call for the most part as I love his size and aggressive nature. He’s thinned down some and if he add some flexibility he could be the next great offensive lineman at Notre Dame.” Pretty high praise for Indiana’s best prospect.

It was also nice to see cornerback Philip Riley get some love. He looks like a prospect that is still rated way too low at this moment.

Even with this update, the Irish did not move much inside the team rankings, as they checked in at 11th nationally. With 18 commits, there might be room for a few more prospects that will be added to the 2021 class. Either way, Brian Kelly should be fairly happy with the recruiting effort in ‘21.

New 247Sports Recruit Rankings Sees Irish Commit Fall

With a new update to the 2021 class recruit rankings, a once highly thought of Notre Dame commit has fallen in 247Sports update.

In their newest update to their Top 247 players at 247Sports, Notre Dame commit Cane Berrong is going the wrong way in the rankings. Previously the Georgia tight end was the 218th overall player, but with another update, Berrong has dropped once again, all the way off the list.

It seems like the recruiting service is not very high on the tight end, as Berrong continues to see his ranking fall. It is unfortunate for the Irish to see this happen, but it’s hard to justify prospects moving anywhere due to the inactivity this summer with the country dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Players all across the country are being reevaluated on old tape and it doesn’t make much sense to me why we’re seeing movement in the rankings.

Looking at the rest of the class, there wasn’t as much movement. The crown jewel of the 2021 Notre Dame recruiting class is California quarterback Tyler Buchner, who went from 49th to 43rd, a move in the positive direction. Offensive tackle Blake Fisher dropped one spot to 85th, while wide receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr. moved up 3 spots to 125th. Gabriel Rubio, the defensive tackle from Missouri, once again dropped, this time from 112th to 147th while Philip Riley stayed at 216th in the country.

With this new update the Notre Dame 2021 recruiting class is currently 15th in the country, with just 11 total commits. Brian Kelly has made it known that to get to the next level, the Irish need to recruit with the elite’s like Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia. Kelly and his staff will need to step their game up in order to finish near the top of the recruiting rankings this cycle.

Rivals: Michigan trying to flip Irish 2021 commit

The Wolverine’s are hard at work trying to flip one of Notre Dame’s top 2021 commits.

This is not the first time that Rivals has put Notre Dame commit Lorenzo Styles Jr. on flip watch. Back in April, the Rivals recruiting experts thought the Ohio wide receiver was seriously listening to Jim Harbaugh selling his Michigan Wolverines. Just two month’s later, the feeling that Styles Jr. might flip is still lingering.

Josh Helmholdt, a Rivals recruiting analyst, looked at the Midwest prospects who could potentially flip and once again, Styles Jr.’s name appeared on the list. Helmholdt said “Michigan that is talked about as the Fighting Irish’s biggest threat. This will continue to be a recruitment to watch, and I expect to see additional visit form Styles when the dead period ends.” Just like in April, this news turns our collective stomachs.

Styles Jr. is seen as one of the top commits in the 2021 class, the only wide receiver currently committed. Georgia’s Deion Colzie was once in the class as well and if the Irish see Styles Jr. flip, Brian Kelly and his staff will have to scramble to get a quality receiver to join star quarterback Tyler Buchner.

The Irish will have to fight off the Wolverines until Styles Jr. signs his letter of intent, the first signing period starts on December 16th. With Michigan charging hard for the talented wide receiver, Kelly should continue to recruit Styles Jr. as if he were an uncommitted prospect.

Rivals Updates their Top 250, See Where Irish Commits are Ranked

In the newest update of Rivals Top 250, a few of Notre Dame’s 2021 commits make the list.

Going into today’s update, the Notre Dame 2021 recruiting class consisted of 10 commits which is good for 9th best nationally according to their rankings. Of those ten, only four made it into the Top 250 prior to the update and that number stayed the same after as well.

In-state offensive tackle Blake Fisher, the Irish’s highest ranked commit, was 20th prior to today and was now ranked 22nd, a minute drop. Ohio wide receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr. also fell two spots to 39th overall in the country, earlier today Irish Wire looked at his potential to move to the defensive side of the ball. California QB Tyler Buchner fell one more spot than his classmates, dropping from 43rd to 46th overall. The final Irish commit was Missouri’s Gabe Rubio, who’s ranking stayed the same at 99th.

There were plenty of Irish targets inside Rivals Top 250 also, which included Maryland’s Dont’e Thornton is ranked 53rd, Michigan’s guard Rocco Spindler is 56th, staying in the same state with running back Donovan Edwards at 61st, Iowa tight end Thomas Fidone at 62nd, Texas back LJ Johnson ranked 69th, and former commit Deion Colzie at 73rd that made it inside the top 100.

It’s a bit surprising to see Irish TE commit Cane Berrong not ranked inside the Top 250, that is a clear omission by the Rivals recruiting staff. At the current moment Rivals does not rank anyone lower than 250 so it is difficult to tell where the rest of the class stands. Either way, the base for Brian Kelly’s 2021 recruiting class is solid and with plenty of very good prospects still uncommitted, the class could go from solid to spectacular by signing day.

Do the Irish already have a 5-Star Commit in their 2021 Class?

The Notre Dame class of 2021 recruits have plenty of stars, but could there be a hidden gem with a position change?

Rivals is updating their 2021 rankings this week and posed a question yesterday regrading which wide receiver could be next in line for a 5-Star ranking. In somewhat of a surprise, Irish commit Lorenzo Styles Jr was on the list. It isn’t surprising because Styles Jr. isn’t good enough to be a 5-Star, it’s the position he would play to get to that status.

Josh Helmholdt, who covers the Midwest for Rivals recruiting, chose Styles Jr. as his guy to rise among his peers. He notes that Styles Jr. has the NFL bloodlines “but if he is going to reach five-star statusI think it will be as a cornerback.” Helmholdt thinks Styles Jr.’s “highest upside is on defense. His size and skill set are more unique at cornerback than at wide receiver. Styles is going to be an impact player no matter which position he plays in college, but if we are talking five-star status it would involve defense.”

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Although the majority of Styles Jr.’s highlight package involves his exploits on offense, but the skills he shows as a corner are impressive. He already has great size for the position at 6’1” and 180-pounds, hands of a WR and impressive ball skills.

Could this be the case for Styles Jr.? Does it make sense to at least give him a shot on the other side of the ball to begin his career? Is there potential for a two-way player? Those are the questions Brian Kelly will have to answer when he arrives on campus. It may make sense to at least give Styles Jr. a look on defense, lock down corners are extremely valuable in today’s pass heavy version of football. Either way, Irish fans are excited that the talented Ohioan chose Notre Dame and will be arriving on campus next fall.