Instant Reaction | Lorenzo Styles in the Transfer Portal

It all seemed so promising for Lorenzo Styles two years ago when he was an early enrollee freshman who ended up catching 24 passes that fall. He showed the big play potential everyone envisioned he could provide when he originally committed to Notre Dame over Ohio State.

With the season capped off by him putting up big numbers in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma State, it was a reasonable expectation for him to transition to be WR1 in 2022 and ascend to Will Fuller status as a sophomore.

It obviously didn’t work out that way and he’s now entered the transfer portal.

They targeted him like their top wide receiver in the first half of last season, but the production wasn’t there and dropped passes ended up leading to a smaller role in the offense. He was 10th in drop passed percentage out of Power 5 receivers last season.

This was set to be a big spring for him to re-establish himself as a viable option at receiver. It became clear that that was trending in the wrong direction when he started repping at defensive back and he made a move over to defense earlier this week.

That may ultimately be his best position if he wants to play in the NFL, but if he’s going to pursue that, it won’t be at Notre Dame. He was going to be in tough to gain reps this fall on what is the deepest position on the team and the clock is ticking on his eligibility.

From a football perspective, Styles making this move now makes a ton of sense. Unfortunately, it ends his time at Notre Dame. He was in the exclusive club of playing 200 snaps as a true freshman and that typically has translated into plenty of success for the Irish.

He’s now in an even more exclusive club. He’s the only one of that group who is transferring before he got his degree from Notre Dame and he now can be discussed with Aaron Lynch as having one of an exciting rookie season followed by an unsastifying conclusion to his story.

Lynch managed to still end up being drafted into the NFL and played in 81 games as a professional. We’ll see if Styles can find the spot at the right position and eventually play at the next level as well.

Talent is not the issue, but his path to the NFL isn’t exactly clear after Notre Dame’s spring ball, so he’ll have to go down a different path at another program with only two years of eligibility remaining.

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