Adon Shuler doesn’t need a reminder about what happened in Miami last season. Notre Dame fans don’t either.
The moment came late in the first half of a 27-24 Hurricanes win, when Miami quarterback Carson Beck floated a pass toward CJ Daniels. Shuler had three clean ways to play it: break up the throw, deliver a legal hit that would have changed the tone, or go up and take the interception himself.
Instead, he hesitated. Daniels didn’t.
He reached out with one hand, hauled it in and scored, giving Miami a seven-point lead before the break. The Hurricanes then doubled that margin on their first possession of the second half.
That play stuck with Shuler through the rest of Notre Dame’s uneven push back toward Playoff contention, and it kept showing up again and again on Miami highlight reels during the Irish’s frustrating December and January.
It also fit the larger story of Shuler’s 2025 season. He entered last spring’s annual media round of questions with a familiar answer when asked what could be different about his game.
Shuler said: "Consistency, starting the season off faster than I did last year."
That answer sounded generic at first. The second part mattered more. Shuler did not start fast.
His early season included another costly moment, this one in Notre Dame’s 41-40 loss to Texas A&M, when a targeting call sent him off the field for the final 13:58. The Irish opened 0-2, and Shuler was left to answer for the kind of start nobody around the program wanted.
"The leaders: they don't care what nobody thinks about them," Shuler told reporters in the wake of Notre Dame's 0-2 start last season-the second loss due in part to a crucial targeting call that ejected Shuler for the final 13:58 of a 41-40 loss to Texas A&M.
"They want to get the job done, so they're going to do everything in their power to make sure everybody holds the standard…not to be that guy, but we can't listen to what everyone is saying," he added. "What the coaches say and what Coach Free says is really the main thing, because we're the ones on the field and no one else can go out there and do what we do."
Now, in 2026, Shuler is back as one of the faces of Notre Dame’s defense. He and linebacker Drayk Bowen return as team captains, and Shuler is set to anchor one of the country’s best defensive backfields. The Irish also enter the season with three new position coaches, including two on defense and new defensive passing game coordinator Aaron Henry.
Shuler said the transition has gone smoothly.
"(Marcus Freeman) is always going to bring in a coach that he knows is going to want the best for us. That's what Coach Henry and Coach J-Cod (Jevaughn Codlin) and Coach (Marty) Biagi, Coach (Chris) Ash - they all want the best for us," Shuler said of the many minds involved with the Irish secondary.
"We see that every day how hard they coach us. They just want us to be our best.
I knew there wasn't going to be a drop-off with coaching when Coach (Mike) Mickens left. We just have to continue to grow."
That growth is happening in a practice environment that sounds plenty familiar to anyone who watched Notre Dame this spring. Shuler is one of the players who keeps the temperature high, pushing teammates in the same way he expects to be pushed.
"You have to be competitive. If it's not competitive, it's not going to be the team that we want to be," said Shuler of the myriad practice skirmishes the media witnessed during its spring practice viewings.
"Coach Freeman calls us misfits and savages. I feel like that's how we have to play every day.
Yes, we're going against our team, but once camp comes around, we'll start to put it together. It's just a competitive team.
Everybody wants to reach their full potential and reach their goals."
For Shuler, that edge is part of the deal. It shows up in his work, in the way he talks, and in the way he goes at teammates who can handle it.
"Everybody is feisty on the field. Me and Coop (Cooper Flanagan) have been going at it for years, and I appreciate him for that," said Shuler of his 2023 classmate.
"We've been getting each other better for a really long time. That's just something that we've grown, and that's the culture now.
You have to be here doing it with guys that you love and guys that you know you can go to war with."
That last line lands harder knowing how last winter ended: with a Playoff snub and a war left unfinished.
In Other News...
Notre Dame Faces The Uniform Compromise Irish Fans Always Feared
The latest reminder that college footballs uniform real estate is getting more expensive came out of Columbus, where Ohio State unveiled a new patch sponsorship that will bring in roughly $17 million a year and fold in extra benefits for its athletes, including NIL opportunities and financial literacy resources. It is the kind of deal that would have seemed far-fetched not long ago, but it fits a growing pattern across Division I, where schools are increasingly turning jerseys into another revenue stream.
For Notre Dame, the concern is less about what happened elsewhere than about how long it can stay above the fray. The Irish have long sold themselves as different, with tradition and aesthetics carrying real weight in the programs identity, yet the pressure to keep pace with the sports financial arms race only keeps building. Every new patch agreement around the country makes the same question harder to avoid: how long can Notre Dame resist before the marketplace starts asking for its own compromise? [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Just Took A Major Step That Will Test Tradition
Notre Dame athletics has entered a new kind of partnership, one that reaches beyond the usual apparel lane and into the schools broader business and student-support plans. The agreement with SoFi Technologies makes the company the Irishs official financial services partner, and it comes with a role that will be visible across all varsity uniforms while also tying into the departments long-running emphasis on the student-athlete experience.
The bigger significance may be what the deal is designed to support. Notre Dame says the partnership will help power its 4 For Forever program, with money aimed at scholarships, financial education and career development, a reminder that the modern college sports marketplace is now shaping everything from branding to postgraduation preparation. For a program that has always guarded its traditions closely, the next question is how far it is willing to go in adapting to this new era. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Just Got A Playoff Prediction That Will Fire Up Fans
Brad Crawfords latest College Football Playoff forecast gives Notre Dame plenty to like heading into the 2026 season. In his CBS Sports projections, the Irish are slotted as the No. 4 seed in a 12-team field, a placement that would put them in position to make another serious postseason run and keep them very much in the national conversation as the sport heads into an unpredictable year.
The bracket gets even more intriguing from there, with Crawford sending Notre Dame all the way to the title game against Oregon. It is the kind of early projection that stirs up Irish fans because it suggests a path back to the biggest stage, even if the forecast ultimately has Oregon finishing the job and claiming the championship in a season that figures to be wide open. [Read more 🡒]