Size, Athleticism, Attitude Help 2021 DB Ryan Barnes Stand Out

When Kabote Sikyala started working Ryan Barnes‍ about a year and a half ago, the defensive back trainer from Maryland immediately recognized the potential of the 2021 cornerback.

“If a kid is 6-2 and he can run, once you polish the other stuff, you know the kid is going to be one of the kids a lot of schools look at it,” Sikyala said of Barnes. “He’s got the size for it.

“I told his dad with his size, once he polishes things, I wouldn’t say guarantee, but it was obvious a lot of schools would be interested.”

Well, had Sikyala made that guarantee, he would have been proven right.

Barnes’ offer sheet now includes schools like Notre Dame, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, USC, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Maryland.

“Obviously he’s 6-2 and almost 180, that alone is big and being able to backpedal like somebody who’s 5-8 and turn like somebody who’s shorter, it’s a big thing for him,” said Sikyala. “A lot of schools really see that he’s able to do that. Being that big, it’s hard to be able to do things like a smaller corner. It’s to his advantage being 6-2, 180. You can’t really find that a lot.”

When Barnes started working with Sikyala, the goal was to polish up the little things and help Barnes appreciate how good he really could be.

“He’s hard-working, smart, likes to compete; overall, he just wants to get better and he just loves playing the game,” said Sikyala.

The process is never finished and Sikyala is consistently drilling the importance of remaining focused, but with Barnes’ versatility, the trainer is confident he’ll succeed wherever he ends up and at whatever spot he ends up.

“I think you can play him at safety, corner. Any position he’s going to be at, he’s going to succeed at because he can run. You can put him at free safety and he’s going to be able to go sideline to sideline. You put him at corner and he can play man, he can play zone. We try to work with him at both.”