Sage Ryan couldn't believe his phone this week.

The mild-mannered kid with the smile as sweet as his game saw the debate rage online whether his fast-approaching college announcement at noon Saturday would favor home-state LSU or rival Alabama.

The Lafayette Christian standout and his family fielded calls from the SEC West powerhouses' coaching staffs battling out the final days of a suddenly higher-profile recruitment than he had ever realized.

To his biggest surprise, he even heard from NFL stars the two programs had helped prepare for that level.

"I've got famous people texting me that I never talked to a day in my life," Ryan said Friday, seeming almost in disbelief all over again. "So I'm like, 'Man, people really care about this decision.' And I really didn't know I was big like that. Like, I'm just ole Sage Ryan from a little town in Louisiana."

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound athlete is the state's No. 2 recruit in a talented 2021 class and No. 32 nationally — a four-star prospect and one of the country's elite few safeties.

And Lafayette is the same town where cousin Kevin Faulk and uncle Trev Faulk excelled at Carencro and Lafayette high schools, respectively, before continuing their own football careers 50 miles east at LSU, then onto the NFL.