Although graduate student linebacker Adam Shibley played for Michigan for four years before transferring to Notre Dame, he has found a way to make a large impact for the Irish during his time at Notre Dame.
The Cleveland, OH native made a large impact for the Wolverines during his time in Ann Arbor. In his sophomore season, he received the team’s Scout Team Player of the Year Award. Shibley would go on to receive Academic All-Big Ten honors in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
In his senior season, Shibley received lots of reps on special teams and got two starts during the season. In his first career start at linebacker against Penn State, Shibley recorded six tackles. Shibley finished the 2020 season with 23 tackles, with three for loss. Shibley was ultimately awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor in 2021 for his work on the field and in the classroom.
Shibley discussed what it was like transferring from Michigan to Notre Dame.
“The transition was made super easy just by the whole team and the whole environment here. Day one I could tell the culture was different and how strong the brotherhood aspect of Notre Dame football is,” Shibley said. “Being able to meet the guys over the summer was a lot of fun and I was able to make some good friends in the process.”
Although Shibley’s season was cut short after the sixth game of the season, he believes that he made a strong impact at the start of the season.
“I felt in those games, I was someone who brought a lot of experience to special teams and led some of the younger guys and helped out in that area. Doing whatever I can for this program to make it better. And now that I am injured, just being a good teammate, being there, for all the guys, that’s what I have brought to the table,” Shibley said.
“We are at Soldier Field and they start playing 'Jump Around' before the fourth quarter, and that’s when our team decided to flip the switch and we just dominated them the rest of the game. I feel like that was one of the coolest moments in my career and playing for the Irish,” Shibley said.
Shibley founded his own organization called Tuff, which is a uniform funding foundation that seeks to “prevent equipment costs and participation fees from being the reason youth student-athletes cannot play,” he said. He has enjoyed seeing some of his Irish teammates want to get involved in his organization.
“Last week I had the opportunity to hand out shirts to all the guys on the team. It’s been cool to see some of the guys want to get involved. It’s really an awesome aspect of coming here. A bunch of us want to stay connected through service as we move down the line,” Shibley said.
Shibley hopes he can work in the sports industry after finishing graduate school.
“I’ll be recruiting for jobs in the National Football League or in the sports industry. I want to get into sports marketing, agency or partnerships,” he said. “Those are the main industries I am going to be recruiting for. I am definitely hoping to stay in the sports industry as I move forward and I graduate in May from the Masters in Management program,” Shibley said.
