Luke Nabors' introduction to college football came hundreds of miles away from where he now plays high school football.
Before emerging as one of Georgia's top 2028 defensive ends, Nabors grew up in the Chicago area cheering for Notre Dame, making last week's scholarship offer from the Irish much more personal.
"This one was definitely exciting," Nabors told Irish Sports Daily. "Definitely one of the bigger ones from all the offers that I have. They instantly rose up my list."
The offer came during a phone call with Notre Dame defensive line coach Charlie Partridge.
"I had a call with Coach Partridge and he was the one that basically told me I had an offer from there," Nabors said.
The conversation also gave Nabors an opportunity to explain why the offer meant so much.
"We had a talk," Nabors said. "I told him a little bit about my backstory and my backstory about football and my why. I'm from Chicago, so that was kind of my childhood dream school. Because Chicago doesn't really have a lot of college teams there, I kind of moved on to Notre Dame."
The Buford High School standout has continued following the Irish over the years despite now living in Georgia and said his impressions of the program have only strengthened under head coach Marcus Freeman.
"It's definitely a prestigious school for academics and athletics," Nabors said. "Coach Freeman, he's a prestigious coach. He's won a lot of games at Notre Dame over these past couple years. So I'm excited to see what he's going to bring to the table in these next couple of years."
The next step for Nabors will be experiencing South Bend firsthand.
The 6-foot-4, 202-pounder has never been to South Bend, but hopes to make his first trip for a game this fall while continuing to create bonds with the coaches.
"I definitely want to get on campus soon for a game," Nabors said. "I want to build the relationship more and get to know more of the coaching staff."
The Georgia native also plans to visit schools like Indiana, Georgia, Texas, Miami and Texas Tech during the season as he continues working through an offer list that includes Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Texas A&M, USC, Tennessee, Michigan and several other Power Four programs.
As the recruiting process moves forward, Nabors already knows what he'll be looking for when it comes time to make a decision.
"Honesty, getting on the field early, seeing myself in the environment and the program and then the scheme and stuff like that."
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