Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM PRESEASON 2024 35 Steal isn't the right word, though; not for Shuler. He's been trending toward snagging a starting safety spot with Watts since he repped alongside him with the ones in all 15 spring practices earlier this year. He got some more work with the starters in the first week of fall camp despite the official addition of Northwestern transfer Rod Heard II to the roster. Common sense says Heard, who's played 2,270 defensive snaps in his ca- reer per Pro Football Focus, will win the job over Shuler. But you cannot count the younger of the two and his 52 ca- reer defensive snaps out. Not when he's taking to heart focusing on those afore- mentioned small aspirations in order to realize those bigger dreams. "I'm trying to do a really good job of getting our guys to focus on every day," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man said. "Each day. I don't care who's with the ones today and the twos to- day. We're rotating. Focus on your reps. We'll get to tomorrow and there will be another guy and another group." "Just me versus me," Shuler added. "I can't look at who's where or what reps I'm getting. I'm just taking my reps se- riously and making sure everything I do is to help my game and get better each day. So that's really the message: to try to get better every day." According to Watts, the 2023 Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner as the nation's most outstanding defensive player, Shuler has done that. "He's matured a lot," Watts said. "One of the biggest things is he believes he can have a really big role in our de- fense this season, so he's starting to ma- ture as it's his time to shine." STACKING DAYS Shuler's still got to prove it. Not just in practices, as he has all year dating back to January, but in games begin- ning with arguably the biggest one on the Notre Dame schedule, which just so happens to be in Week 1. As it stands now, the Fighting Irish are going to trust Shuler to get a sig- nificant number of reps in at safety in that matchup against Texas A&M and beyond despite him having played only 2.3 percent as many career snaps as his running mate at his safety spot, Heard. Shuler's 52 snaps as a true freshman were spread across five games, and 21 of them came in the Sun Bowl against Oregon State. Notre Dame trusted vet- erans DJ Brown and Ramon Henderson to play ahead of Shuler on the depth chart. Given that those players and their 899 combined defensive snaps are no longer in South Bend, and Notre Dame is really only replacing their experience with that of Heard, Shuler's standing as a very viable option for playing time in 2024 is abundantly clear. He's arrived, and he's done it via the long route. Longer, anyway, than a Ben- jamin Morrison or Jaden Mickey. Those two played large roles in the Notre Dame secondary as true freshmen from their very first taste of college football at Ohio State in 2022. Shuler was never really a staple for the Irish secondary, mean- while, until the Sun Bowl. The behind- the-scenes grinding it's taken Shuler to get to the point of being counted on in a huge road matchup against a power pro- gram in a season opener has been real. "Stacking days," Shuler said. "Being consistent. That's the best way to be, consistent. I wouldn't say that I have something that I need to work on, but just being consistent, stacking days, and making sure the coaches can trust me has kind of been my biggest goal going into camp." It's not like a year of going about it that way is anything out of the ordinary. Morrison and Mickey are outliers, in fact. Most players don't get to the top of the depth chart right away like they did. Ask Watts. He changed positions multiple times before settling at safety and becoming one of the best defensive players in America, if not the very best. Watts has watched Shuler's matura- tion closely. He's admired it. He knows it's not easy. "Seeing him last year — as a freshman coming in, everybody messes up, but now being able to take the call and say, 'OK, this is what I have to do, this is my job and what I have to get done,' seeing him progress and do it over and over every day," Watts said. Shuler got to Notre Dame with the reputation of being a big hitter. He plays bigger than his 6-foot, 200-pound frame. But now it's not just about play- ing bigger than it. It's about playing be- yond it. Doing things he wasn't capable of a year ago because he had not yet be- come the player he is now. Big goals. Small steps to reach them. "I'm just trying to elevate my game and get to the next level so that I can be the all-around guy that my team needs," Shuler said. ✦