The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/575020
zarre controversy and unwanted at- tention, and ultimately, a change in the coaching staff to which Butt had committed out of Pickerington, Ohio. He tried to do his part, snagging 21 passes for 211 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but he knew, especially early on, he just wasn't there yet. Fast forward one year, and every- thing looks and feels different. He's al- ready secured 14 catches for 132 yards and a touchdown in only three games. He's guided by a head coach who de- velops tight ends like Buffalo develops snowdrifts. Best of all, the knee feels fine. "It's night and day," Butt assured. "It's just a whole year of lifting, when I'm fully healthy, getting my legs back strong, getting in football shape, rather than rehab shape. It's just such a dif- ference." Butt can be such a difference maker, although he has not fully realized his potential. He became an ESPN.com All-Big Ten Freshman Team mem- ber as a rookie in 2013, pulling down 20 passes for 235 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The sky appeared the limit for Butt the following season before a torn ACL in winter conditioning put a chill on his chances. "You could hear it — a tear, a pop," Butt recalled. A simple corner pattern, one he could run in his sleep, suddenly be- came not so routine. He crumbled to the turf, and soon enough, a surgeon's skills were called upon to repair what Butt had taken for granted. Surgery also revealed a meniscus tear, the only double team that could keep No. 88 contained. And it did, for a long while. He made it back for the 2014 sea- son, but he didn't really make it back until much later. Now he's putting in work for a boss that turned out NFL draft picks in Stanford tight ends Coby Fleener, Zach Ertz, Levine Toilolo and Jim Dray, and employed Vernon Davis as a standout at San Francisco. No doubt, Harbaugh has seen his share of big pass catchers, and he's en- thusiastic about what Butt can bring to his first team in winged helmets. "We have some guys who are really locked in, who really understand their assignment and everybody's assign- ment around them, the whole unit," Harbaugh said. "Jake is as locked in as anyone, and as good as anybody I've been around, in that way, in the mental side of the game. "He's extremely into it and very bright. He's a football player. That's a compliment, and you can't give a bet- ter one. He's a player." For a single game, Butt proved the most effective player at his position at Michigan since two decades earlier. His eight catches for 93 yards at Utah marked the most by a Wolverines tight end since Jay Riemersma posted the same number in a game at Michigan State in 1995. Only U-M tight end luminary Jim Mandich ever posted a more prolific day in a winged helmet. Butt garnered eight helmet stickers from his opening-night act, just one off the team-high claimed by redshirt junior wide receiver Amara Darboh. No Wolverine had been thus adorned since the Holiday Bowl in 1994.