2029 In-State LB Austin Phillips Lands Dream Offer At Notre Dame

Austin Phillips‍ had already collected offers from Louisville, Toledo and UNLV.

But few could compare to the one he picked up on Friday night.

The 2029 Indiana linebacker earned a Notre Dame offer after Irish Invasion, fulfilling a goal he says he's had since the moment he arrived in high school.

The East Noble standout picked up the offer following a strong performance in South Bend, a moment Phillips had envisioned for years.

"That offer was really special to me," Phillips told Irish Sports Daily. "I've always wanted to get an offer from Notre Dame since Day One coming into high school.

"My trainer asked me what was the one school I wanted an offer from or wanted to go play for and I said Notre Dame. That's the school. That's where I want to go."

Linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary informed him just after the camp

"I was talking to Coach BJ and he gave me the offer right then and there with my mother," Phillips said.

The reaction was immediate.

"Oh, hell yeah, man," Phillips said when asked if he was fired up. "I was ecstatic. I told a bunch of my friends right away. They were all super happy for me. I was really happy."

The 6-foot-1, 213-pounder believes his attention to detail throughout the workout helped stand out.

"What I showed them was paying attention to how drills were taught from the start and just executing flawlessly," Phillips explained.

Beyond the offer itself, Phillips came away impressed with how Notre Dame operates.

"Just the way they run practices," he said. "Everything's bang, bang, bang, trying to get things done. Everybody looked like they were having fun and they loved their jobs."

Phillips was already familiar with Jean-Mary from previous trips to Michigan and appreciated the opportunity to work with him again in South Bend.

"It was great," Phillips said. "I was with him at Michigan. I really liked how he did things there and he brought the same mentality and all the same drills over here. I really loved everything. It was really good the way he designed it all."

The offer may have been a dream come true, but Phillips isn't planning to rest anytime soon.

"Just get back in the lab, keep training hard, keep doing everything I'm doing, stay humble and just don't get comfortable from here," he said.

A return trip to South Bend is likely.

"100 percent," Phillips said when asked if he'd be back. "We're trying to work something out and get back up there."

Until then, he'll continue a busy camp schedule with stops at Purdue, Ohio State and Michigan State.

Despite the significance of the offer, Phillips isn't planning to begin cutting his list down just yet.

"Probably not this year," he said when asked about narrowing his list. "We're still really early in this process. A lot more schools will hopefully be looking at me in the future, so we're just keeping a broad view on everything and not narrowing anything down right now."

The Irish may have been the offer Phillips wanted most, but he's not ready to declare anybody a favorite.

"It's too early to talk about that right now," he said.

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