tool name
closeHe has his fathers name, plays his position, even wears his uniform number. Close your eyes and listen to them talk, and it's tough to tell the difference.
CDT photo/Nabil K. Mark
Penn State tight end Mickey Shuler Jr., left, will be one of 18 Nittany Lion seniors to run out of the Beaver Stadium tunnel for a final time today when they host Indiana at noon. Shuler, the son of former Lion and NFL tight end Mickey Shuler Sr., is planning to pursue an athletic training career once the one on the football field comes to a close.
Thirty-two years and two days after Mickey Shuler played his final game in Beaver Stadium, Mickey Shuler, Jr., will run out of the tunnel for the final time today, when the No. 19 Nittany Lions host Indiana at noon.
The 6-foot-4, 248-pound senior tight end from Enola has embraced and been driven by the legacy his father, who played tight end for Penn State from 1975-77 before going on to a 14-year NFL career that included two all-pro seasons.
“I really did want to make a name for myself, and that’s what I tried to do when I was here. Work hard every day and try to get out of that shadow of my father,” Shuler says, adding in the same breath:
“Even though I do like it, when people make references, say I look a lot like him and remind them of when he played. There are a lot of people that are still fans now who were fans when he played. When you get a lot of comparisons, it’s neat, and it’s an honor when you’re compared to a player like my father.”
Shuler remembers watching a highlight tape of his father’s career with his friends as a kid. He sees a very similar player when he studies film of himself today.
“I think I’m a little bit faster than he was,” Shuler says, grinning. “I can see the same running form. I don’t try it, but I guess it’s just natural, it’s in my blood.”
His father, who was a third-round draft choice by the New York Jets in 1978 and played 12 seasons with the Jets and two with the Philadelphia Eagles, takes the comparisons a step further.
“I think he’s a better athlete than I was,” Shuler Sr. says. “He ran high hurdles (in high school). I couldn’t run high hurdles.”
But following in someone’s footsteps is a tricky thing, even if it’s someone who was willing to do whatever he could to help you along. Shuler starred in football, basketball and track at East Pennsboro High School — just as his dad had done three decades before — but those comparisons were with him at every turn.
“I had it rough a little bit growing up, just people expecting things out of you, maybe a little more at a certain point than you were given,” Shuler says. “People were a little bit hard on you.”
Mickey Sr. believes there were “much better athletes” coming out of high school when his son played than when he went from East Pennsboro to Penn State. Athleticism alone wouldn’t be enough for Mickey Jr., and his dad, who was a volunteer football coach during Shuler’s high school career, knew it.
“I told him, ‘You’re not competing with the kids on your high school team,’” Shuler Sr. says. “‘You have to compare yourself to work habits of guys who will be at different schools across the country. ... I was harder on him than I was on the other kids. I didn’t cut him any slack.”
Like many teenagers, especially those who are coached by a parent (Shuler’s mom, Sue, coached him during track season), Shuler needed some time to learn to handle the criticism.
“It hasn’t always been easy to listen to him critiquing me and criticzing me,” Shuler says. “A lot of times, he’d forget to tell you the good things you did and just tell you the bad things.”
The coaching has continued since Shuler came to Penn State. The two speak on the phone almost every day and will often break down film together. Shuler doesn’t mind hearing about what he did wrong now — he wants to hear it.
“With age and maturity, I love talking to him and can take a criticism and not argue with him,” he says. “I take it for what it’s worth because I know it’s going to make me better. At the college level, I might know some things that a guy doesn’t know until he gets to the NFL, just because of my father.”
With three games left in his Penn State career, Shuler has 26 career catches (10 this season) for 292 yards and four touchdowns. He has spent much of the last few seasons backing up or sharing reps with fellow senior Andrew Quarless.
He might have found more playing time or more opportunities to catch passes somewhere else, but Shuler tipped his hand pretty early in the recruiting process when he told a coach from another school that as soon as Penn State gave him an offer, he was going to commit, which he did in February of 2005.
“Everybody in his family went to Penn State,” says Shuler Sr., whose wife and three daughters are also alumni. “It was hard for anybody to really think that he was going to go anywhere else.”
The biggest early obstacle Shuler had to face was putting on weight. He gained about 15 pounds the summer before he arrived on campus (after running track in the spring) but weighed only 214. He was able to steadily add bulk, making sure he ate the right kinds of food.
“When I first started, to gain weight we ate Big Macs,” Shuler Sr. says, laughing.
“Eating was probably the hardest thing for me, it still is,” Shuler says. “If I miss a meal, I’m dropping weight. It’s a ’round-the-clock type of thing, and you’ve really got to be consistent about the amount of calories you put in your body.”
A kinesiology major, Shuler spent the summer working as an intern with former Penn State fullback Jason Sload, who runs a company called Complosive Speed. The goal is to help athletes develop speed and explosion with training aids called “L Bands” that stretch from the foot to the thigh. He trained local high school football players, including one of his young cousins.
“I enjoy training people and trying to get the best out of them,” he says.
If training is in Shuler’s future, coaching might be in his father’s. Mickey Sr. has considered getting into the professional or collegiate coaching ranks.
“I tried to get Joe (Paterno) to hire me twice,” Shuler Sr. says. “I don’t know if he thought I was serious or not.”
But after 14 years in professional football, Shuler Sr. wanted to dedicate some time to his family, and didn’t want to coach “until I got my family raised.” He didn’t start networking until recently.
For the past two years, he and Sue have been at each of Shuler’s games, watching the past and present converge each time No. 82 trots onto the field.
“Everyone follows Mickey pretty much wherever he’s going right now,” his father says. “Our emotions ride with him and are in support of him.”
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