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2022 Pickerington (Ohio) Central Safety Sonny Styles Signs With Ohio State

The Buckeyes have just secured a signature from one of the nation's most sought-after defenders.

Andrew Lind

STYLES PROFILE

Hometown: Pickerington, Ohio

High School: Central

Size: 6-foot-4, 215 pounds

Composite Ranking: ★★★★★

Commitment Date: Nov. 13, 2021

Recruitment Recap: Styles landed an offer from Ohio State in August 2020 following a nationally televised game in which he intercepted a pass and blocked a punt that he returned for a touchdown. He was just the second in-state player in the class of 2023 to be offered by the Buckeyes, joining Mentor defensive end Brenan Vernon.

Benefitting from his proximity, Ohio State welcomed Styles to campus four times over the summer and then twice in the fall, including the loss to Oregon in September and win over Penn State in late October. He then announcing commitment to the Buckeyes in mid-November, just hours ahead of the win over Purdue.

Styles, who is the son of former Ohio State linebacker Lorenzo Styles (1992-94), figured to take on a leadership role in Ohio State’s 2023 recruiting class. However, he reclassified earlier this month in order to join the program one year early.

Evaluation: “(Styles) is incredibly impressive physically,” Irish Breakdown’s Bryan Driskell said. “He’s every bit of 6-4 and he already looks like a college player. He’s defined, muscular and he has a strong, powerful lower half. Styles covers well and he’s got a unique combination of size and athleticism. He moved well in drills, flips his hips relatively well and showed good coverage instincts.

“Even on the rare occasion that a receiver got a step on him, Styles showed the recovery speed needed to thrive in coverage, and his length makes him very hard to get the ball over or around. His footwork in transitions isn’t strong right now, but what I loved is that when Styles did get beat, he would immediately walk over to a coach and talk through what happened. 

"That’s something you love to see as a coach, especially for someone with such a high recruiting profile. He clearly wants to compete and get better.”

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Andrew Lind
ANDREW LIND

Andrew Lind is an Ohio State beat writer and photographer at BuckeyesNow, founder of The Ohio State Uniform Database and the NCAA and NFL writer at SportsLogos.net.

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