Four-Star Defensive Back Talks Virtual Tour of Minnesota, UW Interest
For his birthday Tuesday several colleges sent Steven Ortiz visual images commemorating him and wishing the four-star defensive back a good day.
And then Minnesota – who offered the Desert Edge High School junior just eight days ago – moved in with a unique opportunity. The Golden Gophers coaches gave Ortiz a virtual tour of their campus and facilities in Minneapolis.
“It was great. I got to see a bunch of videos of the specific areas and stuff they were talking about,” Ortiz said of the experience. “And I got to have individual FaceTime conversations with a lot of (their) coaches.”
Ortiz, the No. 13 ranked safety in the 2021 recruiting class based on Rivals’ rankings, has already been speaking often with Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck and defensive backs / safeties / co-defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak prior to his remote unofficial visit Tuesday.
The Golden Gophers coaching staff gave Ortiz a clear image of their plan for him, should the four-star defensive back choose to head to the Midwest to play his college ball.
As of now he has an official visit scheduled to Minnesota for June 12, roughly two months after the NCAA’s mid-April tentative ban on unofficial and official visits is set to expire.
One other school Ortiz has in mind for an official is Washington. The Huskies extended a scholarship offer to the No. 6 ranked prospect from the state of Arizona back on Jan. 18, when Ortiz and several other juniors visited UW.
Round about one month removed from the transition at head coach from Chris Petersen to Jimmy Lake the four-star had a new Power Five program on his list that prior to then he hadn’t heard much from.
“I wasn’t offered until Lake took over so I wasn’t really that familiar with the old coach before Lake,” he said. “The thing that interests me about Washington is that they have a DB coach as the head coach. And they have had a lot of success with defensive backs in the past.”
Since Lake has been at UW as one of Petersen’s original crop of assistant coaches in 2014 the program has signed seven players from the Grand Canyon State, including a pair of defensive backs; Byron Murphy (four-star, class of 2016) and Dominique Hampton (three-star, class of 2018).
The Huskies head coach has assumed point on Ortiz’s recruitment for the staff, recruiting him as a nickel and cornerback. For Ortiz, it doesn’t matter where he plays. He’s going to perform the same no matter the position.
“Reckless. Grimey. Versatile. Confident,” he said, when asked how to describe his game noting there is a constant level of edge Ortiz plays with at all times.
The four-star defender holds 20 scholarship offers total to date including half the schools in the Pac-12 Conference – Arizona, California, Oregon, Oregon State, UW and Washington State – with interest from Arizona State and USC as well.
Ortiz visited both the Ducks and Beavers in March before Covid-19 forced the NCAA to issue a ban on unofficial and official visits until April 15 at the earliest.