Notre Dame Safety Adon Shuler Prepared For Hoosier Attack
Adon Shuler had been paying attention to Indiana even before the Notre Dame safety knew the Hoosiers would be his opponent in Friday’s inaugural College Football Playoff game.
”I watched them a lot the last few weeks, even during the season,” the sophomore said earlier this week. “They’re real disciplined and have a really balanced attack offensively. Defensively, they’re really good too. They have a lot of good players. Their coaches are really good.
”It’s cool seeing how the whole College Football Playoff shook out. I didn’t imagine playing them, but I’m glad we have a great opponent we’re about to play on Friday.”
Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke certainly jumped out to Shuler on film.
”He’s a veteran,” Shuler said of Rourke, the grad transfer from Ohio who has thrown for 2,827 yards and 27 touchdowns with only four interceptions this season.
“He doesn't make a lot of mistakes with the ball. We have to play our football and get him off rhythm. He’s a rhythm type of guy.”
”He’s a rhythm guy, so getting off rhythm, even that’s making him move is definitely something the coaches have been talking to us about.”
The defense has been one of the Irish’s strengths all season, but had its worst outing of the year in the regular season finale at USC three weeks ago.
”USC challenged us passing-wise, and probably more than we had seen the whole season,” said Shuler.
The Trojans put up 35 points and threw for 360 yards.
“We’re taking the lumps we had during USC and building from it,” Shuler said. “Ever since that game, we‘ve been building to be a better defense than we put on our last game. Defensively, our last game wasn’t our best game.
”It’s hard to adjust from having to go from Army back to pro-style. That kind of messed with us a little bit. They challenged us. Coach (Lincoln) Riley is really good with throwing the ball. We knew it was going to be challenging.”
In addition to being motivated by a subpar performance their last time out, the Irish are also excited to get defensive tackle Howard Cross back for the first time since the Florida State game in early-November.
”Amazing,” Shuler said of Cross’ return. “I was talking to him earlier about it. I said, ‘We missed you.’ Having him back is going to be a huge, huge asset for us. He’s a veteran in the interior and I think he’s going to make a lot of plays.”
”He’s definitely a difference-maker. His presence and his dog mentality is something that trickles down to everybody who is on the field. Great having him back.”