Notre Dame Freshman Adon Shuler To Miss Spring Practice

Notre Dame freshman safety is out for the spring after having surgery on his shoulder

Notre Dame's thin safety depth chart suffered a blow this week when freshman Adon Shuler had surgery on an injured shoulder, which will keep him out for the spring.

According to a source, this was a pre-existing injury that Shuler and Notre Dame felt was best to fix now. It is expected that Shuler will be available for fall camp.

Notre Dame has a relatively thin safety depth chart, with sixth-year senior DJ Brown, senior Xavier Watts, senior Ramon Henderson and junior Justin Walters are the only non-freshman safeties on the roster. Walters has struggled to stay healthy during his Irish career. Transfer Thomas Harper can play safety, but he was brought in primarily as a slot player.

Shuler and fellow freshman safety Ben Minich were early enrollees, while fellow safety signee Brandyn Hillman is slated to arrive this summer.

Here is my evaluation of Shuler:

With Shuler, the first thing that stood out to me on film is how mature his game is from a technical and playmaking standpoint. He's an assignment correct, instinctive and high IQ safety that already shows an advanced feel for the game. Shuler comes down hill aggressively and plays with very good angles in both the run game and pass game. His feel for beating receivers to the spot is quite nuanced for such a young player, and he takes very good run game angles from depth, which makes him an impact defender against the run.

Shuler has the kind of frame you want at safety. He's at least 6-0, he has some length to him and he's got an athletic build. He already has good listed size but he'll continue to fill out and add even more strength. Athletically, Shuler is very light on his feet and packs a punch when he arrives at the ball. His agility and balance grade out very high, and he shows the ability to change direction with ease.

I questioned his speed and explosiveness as a sophomore, but as a junior he showed a much-needed jump in both areas. His long speed improved, his ability to open and run got better and his ability to plant and drive downhill was impressive. This made him a far more effective player as a junior and caused his grade to jump up quite a bit.

As a junior, Shuler has used his jump in burst and strength to be a highly effective run defender, but his improved speed has made him far more impactful in the pass game. Combined with his intelligence, that improvement makes Shuler a defender capable of playing more man coverage, but it's his improved range on that back end that stood out the most.

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