Notre Dame football players still adjusting to mammoth Shields Hall

SOUTH BEND — Everyone associated with Notre Dame football is still reveling in the newness of Shields Family Hall, the mammoth football facility that opened on July 31 ahead of fall training camp.

“I’m still learning the building,” senior safety and team captain Adon Shuler said Tuesday at Notre Dame Stadium. “I keep joking around with Drayk (Bowen) like, ‘We need a map.’ That’s how big the building is.”

Officially listed at more than 150,000 square feet and built at an estimated cost of more than $100 million, the facility replaces the 21-year-old Guglielmino Athletics Complex, which had housed Notre Dame’s football offices and training facilities in its 97,000 square feet.

The move to Shields represents “a huge upgrade,” Shuler said, calling it “a breath of fresh air” amid the dog days of August.

“It’s just humbling,” he added. “I haven’t really been able to enjoy the whole thing yet, but we’re going to be in there all day and night during camp.

“It’s just really cool to be able to have all the intangibles to recover, meet with your coaches, the experience rooms. All of that will just help me be a better person and a better football player.”

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Bowen, also a senior returning captain at linebacker, mentioned the dining hall first when asked his favorite part of Shields.

“The food is a huge win,” Bowen said. “But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how much more wear and tear you get on the body throughout long seasons. For me, the biggest thing is probably going to be the recovery room of all the things they have now that we can use that can help you get back to 100% a lot sooner.”

Bowen, the former Indiana Mr. Football from Andrean High School, played through a hip injury for a good portion of 2025 but was back to full-go this summer after undergoing hip surgery in the winter.

“That’s probably going to be the biggest thing for us and for our team is the recovery room,” Bowen said. “How fast guys are going to be able to get back from a game but also just overall injury. You’re trying to get back from an injury that maybe we didn’t have before that we do now. That’s going to be a big piece for our team.”

Irish coach Marcus Freeman, entering his fifth full season at the helm, has no complaints about the latest weapon in his ever-churning recruiting machine.

“It’s unbelievable,” Freeman said. “Credit to (chief operating officer) Ron Powlus and everybody that really spent a lot of time thinking about what our players need. It serves our players in a way they’ve never been served before, and they deserve it.”

Even in the arms race of modern college football, Notre Dame’s new digs appear second to none.

“They have the best of the best — everything,” Freeman said. “I got a text from a coach I really respect that dealt with moving into a new building. He said you don’t even realize how valuable that will be to the teaching and coaching.

“I’m excited for them to use it, for me to learn all the different teaching tools and how they can utilize it. I don’t want to compare (this to) anybody else’s. I know at some point it will get old, but every time I walk in there, I’m in awe.”

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football players still adjusting to mammoth Shields Hall