Notre Dame picked up its third commitment for the class of 2023 on Sunday after when 4-star safety Adon Shuler out of Irvington, New Jersey selected the Irish over Penn State and Maryland.
Shuler is only 15 years at the moment so he obviously has a lot of room to grow and develop, but the Irish coaching staff saw enough out of him in May to extend an offer and at the recent “Grill and Chill” event to put on the full-court press.
In addition to Penn State and Maryland; Florida, Boston College, Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia all offered as well. Shuler’s stock is just taking off though. He was rated as a 3-star recruit up until the most recent 247 rankings came out at which point he jumped all the way up to #200 overall while grabbing that 4th star.
Shuler’s sophomore film shows an instinctual player with good ball skills who has the potential to develop into an elite safety on the collegiate level. This is where the coaching staff – especially Matt Balis’s – projection comes into play since Shuler is still just 15 and has a lot of football to play before he reports to Notre Dame’s campus.
The one area where most scouts agree he needs to improve is his speed, but that is only natural given where he is at in his development. If his speed develops, he’s got all the makings of an elite collegiate safety. As is, he is already 6’1″, 190 lbs heading into his junior season. He is only going to get bigger and faster by the time he enrolls at Notre Dame.
In limited action on offense last year, Shuler hauled in 10 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown. Defensively he totaled 28 tackles as a sophomore.
Given Notre Dame hasn’t landed a true safety in the class of 2022 just yet – though they hope to add Xavier Nwankpa – the addition of Shuler for 2023 already is significant. Between Devin Moore and Jayden Bellamy, Notre Dame has players who can play safety, but neither of them project as pure safeties since both could also play corner. Notre Dame does have a total of four defensive backs committed for 2022 – Moore, Bellamy, Benjamin Morrison, and Jaden Mickey.
Notre Dame is off to a hot start on the defensive side of the ball for 2023. Shuler joins 5-star defensive end Brenan Vernon and 4-star defensive end Keon Keely. Marcus Freeman is wasting no time lining up elite talent to fill the future Notre Dame depth charts.
Notre Dame Recruiting the Garden State Hard
Shuler is the fourth player to commit to Notre Dame in the last ten months starting with Audric Estime for the class of 2021 and followed by class of 2022 teammates Jayden Bellamy and Steve Angeli.
There are currently six players on the Irish roster including Estime from New Jersey. Clarence Lewis, Howard Cross III, Jayson Ademilola, Justin Ademilola, and Kevin Bauman.
Estime was a late addition to the class of 2021 after Notre Dame reset its running backs board following the loss of Will Shipley early in the cycle. He reported to camp looking like a man-child and has hype building early in training camp.
