Jake Butt
Name: Jake Butt
Height: 6’6″
Weight: 248 lbs.
High school: Pickerington (OH) North
Position: Tight end
Class: Junior
Jersey number: #88
Last year: I ranked Butt #11 and said he would be the starting tight end with 20 catches, 200 yards, and 3 touchdowns. He caught 21 passes for 211 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Well, that wasn’t a bad prediction for last year. Butt was 1 catch, 11 yards, and 1 touchdown away from hitting my mark. I would have expected more from Butt if not for the fact that he was coming off of a torn ACL he had suffered in the off-season. He played in just ten games last year and started only five as the coaches tried to work him back into the lineup gradually. Other than an early-season demolition of Miami-OH (3 catches, 59 yards, 1 touchdown for Butt in a 35-10 win), Butt was relatively quiet on a weekly basis until he caught 8 passes for 53 yards and 1 touchdown over the final two weeks of the season (against Maryland and Ohio State).
I have high hopes for Butt this season in an offense that will certainly look to take advantage of tight end mismatches, multiple tight end sets, and the play action pass. Jim Harbaugh does a very good job of developing tight ends, but his tight ends at Stanford were not extremely prolific. Coby Fleener’s best season under Harbaugh was as a senior in 2010, when he caught 28 passes for 434 yards (15.5 yards/catch) and 7 touchdowns. The thing to note about those statistics is the yards per catch and the touchdowns, the latter of which counted for 25% of Ertz’s receptions. (Also noteworthy is that backup Zach Ertz had 16 catches for 190 yards and 5 touchdowns that year.) The tight ends are a big part of the offense all over the field, but they become especially prominent in the red zone. I think Butt is a player who could flourish under Harbaugh and with the right quarterback at the helm (which should be Jake Rudock, in my opinion).
Butt is a solid blocker, runs good routes, has plus speed, and has shown soft hands. He could be an All-Big Ten player, and perhaps an All-American if he gets enough targets. Michigan should establish the running game early in the year, and since Butt is a three-down tight end, he can be a threat in almost any situation. Throwing to tight ends takes some extra touch and recognition of defenses, and I think Shane Morris would struggle to find Butt more than Rudock would. We should see an emphasis on the tight end that we have not seen since Bennie Joppru wore the winged helmet in 2002 (53 catches, 579 yards, 5 touchdowns).
Prediction: Starting tight end; 40 catches, 550 yards, 6 touchdown
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Wondering out loud what the Michigan single season record for TE yardage is. Anyone know a website where I could find it?-
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http://statsarchive.ath.umich.edu/VS-Football/footstart.php
Depends on whether you considered Funchess a true TE. If so, he’d lead the way with 748 in 2013 and 733 in 2014. After that, it’s Jim Mandich with 676 yards in 1969.
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One can debate 2013 I suppose but Funchess was clearly a WR last year. They didn’t list him at TE and he didn’t line up at TE.
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If we assume Ruddock is the QB and will be efficient if not unspectacular, then Butt being #2 makes a lot of sense. The RB unit has no clear game-changer (such as Ezekiel Elliott at OSU, or Leonard Fournette at LSU). No WR stands out as Howard or Carter from the past. So someone must be the target of Ruddock’s offensive game management, and that someone is, primarily (not exclusively), Jake butt.
Within the context of impact to the team in the event of injury … again, makes sense: if we lose Jake Butt, a good portion of our offensive threat diminishes.
A lot is riding on this young man. Let us hope he stays healthy all year long.
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If we assume that Jake Butt can replace the offense lost by an early leaving Funchess and we assume that the growth on the OL can help the RBs to replace the rushing from Gardner, all we need is a game manager in Rudock to control the turnovers and run the offense. By cutting down on the turnovers we should see an improvement over last year with those other items holding. Jake could be a huge part of this offense and allow guys like Harris and Perry to slowly find their place.
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If Butt replaces Funchess who replaces Butt?
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21 catches for 211 yds and 2 touchdowns is not a high production to replace. We are looking at a bump for Darboh or the emergence of Harris to replace most if not all of those yards. I am willing to bet we see a second TE get that many touches and yards this season. I see an increase out of the backfield too, so the catches and yards by Norfleet will be wash as well.
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He should be #1 for the opportunities he gives for butt puns and jokes alone.
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Nice job on this. I have Butt a couple spots lower just because I don’t think he’s an all-american caliber TE — but he could produce like one in this system. I also do think that Hill and company could be adequate replacements, but have to acknowledge that none of Butt’s many backups are proven to be as good.
Butt should have a great year. He’s one of the rare guys that seems like he has been around longer than he has, just because he’s been a fixture on the field whenever he has been healthy.
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