Well-Rounded Wolverine: Butt Collects Senior CLASS Award
12/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 28, 2016
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Senior tight end and team captain Jake Butt of the sixth-ranked University of Michigan football team was announced Wednesday (Dec. 28) as the recipient of the Senior CLASS Award for NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The award, chosen by a nationwide vote of Division I FBS football coaches, national football media and fans, is given annually to the most outstanding senior student-athlete who displays notable achievements in the areas of community, classroom, character and competition.
"This award means a lot -- just to be nominated with these other nine finalists has been an honor," said Butt.
"I really don't think there is one winner of this award. Everyone wins by giving back to their communities and making a difference and an impact off the field, in the classroom and on the field, too. The real winners are the people whose lives we can make an impact on off the field."
"We are thrilled that the voters selected Jake Butt as this year's Senior CLASS Award winner," said Erik Miner, executive director for the Senior CLASS Award. "He is an upstanding young man with tremendous dedication to excellence both on and off the field, and our congratulations go out to him, his team and the entire university."
Butt becomes the first Wolverine in school history to win this award in any sport. The award first expanded to include football in 2008, making him the ninth winner in its history. Prior to Butt, quarterback Devin Gardner was Michigan's lone finalist, in 2014. Butt is the fifth player from the Big Ten Conference to add this honor to his trophy case, joining James Laurinaitis (Ohio State, 2008), Kirk Cousins (Michigan State, 2011), John Urschel (Penn State, 2013) and Ameer Abdullah (Nebraska, 2014).
"Jake is dedicated to being the best football player and person he can possibly be," said J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. "We are extremely proud of his achievements on the field, in the classroom and in the community. He is passionate about being a role model for today's youth and takes that responsibility very seriously. We couldn't be happier for Jake and his family on being named the Senior CLASS Award recipient. It is a great honor and recognition for an individual that puts his heart into everything, and we are proud that Jake represents the University of Michigan."
This year's recipient of the John Mackey Award recognizing college football's best tight end, Butt is also a repeat winner of the Kwalick-Clark Big Ten Tight End of the Year award, and he has been named a first team All-American in consecutive seasons.
Through the 2016 regular season, Butt has hauled in 43 receptions for 508 yards (11.8 avg.) and four touchdowns. Twenty-nine (29) of his 43 receptions have netted first downs, including eight catches that moved the chains on third down. Butt has collected at least one reception in 34 of his last 38 games and is the team's second-leading receiver this season, just behind wide receiver Amara Darboh (52 receptions for 826 yards).
With 135 receptions for 1,618 yards on his career, Butt is the Michigan football program's all-time leading receiver in receptions and yards by a tight end. He has registered 11 career touchdowns, four shy of Jerame Tuman (15, 1995-98) for the program touchdown record by a tight end.
"Coming back for my senior season made me a better football player because I was able to meet some of my goals," said Butt. "I became a better blocker, I got a lot faster, and I became the person and leader that I wanted to be for this team. Coming back this year has been everything I could have wished for. It's been awesome playing with these guys. We've had a lot of success on the field, and we've laid a foundation for future success at Michigan."
Selected as a co-captain by his teammates, Butt spends a lot of time, effort and energy working in the tight end room with younger players, and he is a leader on an offensive unit with plenty of them. He has helped lead the Michigan offense to the second-ranked scoring offense in the Big Ten (No. 12, NCAA), averaging 41.0 points per game. The Wolverines boast one of the most balanced offensive attacks in the nation, averaging 223.3 rushing yards and 216.1 passing yards per contest.
CLASS stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, and the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete, encouraging students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I FBS senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Butt checks the boxes in all four areas. He is among the most active Wolverines in the community, volunteering his time most weeks at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, where he visits children with other U-M student-athletes on Thursday nights. Last year, Butt helped fulfill a Make-A-Wish request for a young boy who suffers from cancer, and he and the boy have developed a lasting relationship which continues to this day. This fall, he traveled to Garden City, Michigan, unannounced, to visit an injured athlete who looked up to him, encouraging the young man in his recovery.
When heroin overdose affected Butt's home town of Pickerington, Ohio, he made the decision to be part of the solution. He returned home and participated in a charity 5K event with proceeds going toward relief and combatting the issue. Butt is also among the program's most active members with the #ChadTough Foundation, which supports pediatric brain tumor research in the memory of Chad Carr.
In the classroom, Butt is a dedicated sociology major who recently graduated this winter. Over the summer, he completed an internship for credit with Thomson Reuters in Dexter, Michigan, to broaden his experiences in and out of the classroom and found it a challenging but rewarding experience. As a senior, he earned his first career Academic All-Big Ten honor.
"Michigan challenges you, first and foremost, in the classroom," said Butt. "It's a prestigious university and one of the top public universities in the world. One goal of mine throughout my college career was to be focused in the classroom and make the most of this educational opportunity. It hasn't always been easy; I've changed my major a few times, and classes here are difficult. It has required a lot of time and effort, but it has definitely been worth it."
Butt's character shines through in everything that he does. He has also shown his mental toughness through his return from a torn ACL suffered early in his U-M career. Instead of letting the injury get to him, he put his head down and went to work, returning far ahead of schedule to return to the field of play before anticipated. He has grown into a leader for the program, representing Michigan at the Big Ten Media Days this past summer.
Communications Contact: Dave Ablauf, Chad Shepard
