Adon Shuler on His Father’s Lessons and Leading Notre Dame in Year Two as Captain

Adon Shuler met with reporters Wednesday for the first time since his father’s death, keeping a captain’s availability that had been scheduled before the passing of Don Shuler died Aug. 31. The senior safety, a captain for the second straight season, said he is treating game week ahead of Sunday’s opener against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field the way he would any other.

“Football is something I’ve been doing my whole life. He introduced it to me,” Shuler said. “So, I feel like it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t attack this week the way I’m attacking it. And, you know, just looking at it as a regular week. And, you know, yes, I had a great loss, but, I know he’s looking and watching, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Asked what it meant that so many of his teammates and their parents had known his father over the years, Shuler pointed back to the man himself. “It just speaks to the character of who he was and the type of person that he was,” he said. “And I used to tell him that every room he walked in, he lit it up. And I feel like that’s kind of the legacy that he left.”

The Lessons Don Shuler Left Behind

Shuler said his father taught him two things. The first was about people.

“Everybody that you come in contact with is a person that you can touch,” Shuler said. “And I feel like that’s how he was with everybody. Everybody he came in contact with, he touched them, and he was a light for people.”

The second was about circumstance. “But he also told me life is a card game. You get dealt the cards you get dealt. It’s your job to change your circumstance, to change what you’re going through, what you’re around. And that’s just something that he kind of instilled in me, always work hard, always keep your head down. Don’t expect nothing, and things will always work itself out.”

On his father’s own background in the sport, Shuler said he had been an all-state offensive lineman in high school, and that football was a constant subject in the house. “He taught me a lot, me and my little brothers, a lot about the game of football,” he said. “And he taught us that football, you can use as a way of life. And I feel like that’s how me and my brothers look at it.”

Leading Into Year Two

Shuler finished second on the team with 53 tackles last season, and he added two interceptions for 46 return yards along with five pass breakups. Three tackles for loss and his first career sack.

“Something that me and my dad always talked about, especially going into this season, like just being a better leader,” Shuler said. “I feel like my leadership grew throughout last season, but I just wanted to start the year off with great leadership and just make sure my teammates know they picked the right guy to lead them.”

He described being voted captain the first time as the biggest accomplishment of his life and said calling both of his parents to tell them was the part that stayed with him. His father, he said, was ecstatic for him and for the team.

Support Around Him This Week

Defensive coordinator Chris Ash said the program has told Shuler it will do whatever he needs. “Adon’s a mature individual and we’re going to support Adon, his family, any way that we need to, any way that we can,” Ash said.

Drayk Bowen, a fellow captain on the defense who put up 67 tackles a year ago, spoke Wednesday as well. “You know, we love him, so we’re just putting our arms around him, making sure that he feels supported, knowing that we got his back and that we’re always going to be there for him.”

Shuler said he wants to open the year as the leader his teammates voted for. The back end at Lambeau Field is his to run Sunday, in his first game since his father’s death.