Thursday, February 13, 2014

Jake Butt out indefinitely with a torn ACL

Jake Butt had a huge touchdown catch in the 2013 game against Ohio State
Sophomore tight end Jake Butt will miss an indefinite amount of time after suffering a torn ACL during offseason conditioning. Butt had 17 catches for 202 yards and 2 touchdowns in his inaugural season.

Butt will certainly miss spring practice, and it's unclear how much of his 2014 season will be lost. Projected to be the starting tight end for the upcoming season, the job will now be left to junior A.J. Williams, fifth year senior Jordan Paskorz, redshirt freshman Khalid Hill, and freshman Ian Bunting. It may also affect hybrid receiver Devin Funchess, who was expected to stick at wideout this year but may be pressed into more duty as a tight end.

The Wolverines have suffered several ACL injuries in the last 12 months, including linebacker Jake Ryan, offensive guard Joey Burzynski, quarterback Russell Bellomy, and running back Drake Johnson. All four of those players were either #1 or #2 on the depth chart at their respective positions last season.

12 comments:

  1. Here's where I channel suduri,

    I'd be having a heart to heart talk with my Strength and Conditioning guy this morning about getting his butt to some clinics and figuring this thing out and/or start looking around for another gig.

    You should not be blowing up ACLs over and over during conditioning. Period.

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    1. Yes, yes. You go ahead and channel your inner me.

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  2. What Roanman said, pretty much. Does anyone have reasonable data on this? How often does this happen at (e.g.) OSU & MSU?

    Anyway, big loss ... I feel bad for Jake.

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  3. I hope he can make a speedy come back a la Jake Ryan. A big blow to the team.

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  4. You're forgetting Shallman... or are we still pretending that he is a running back,

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  5. Well, he might be a fullback/H-back. I used to get angry e-mails about suggesting that Shallman wouldn't play tailback in college.

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  6. This would be a debilitating loss w/Borges as our DC. Instead, it's just very very bad. He's our only 'dual-threat' TE.

    Pressure and opportunity is there for AJ Williams to step up, but he's never going to be a dynamic receiving threat.

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  7. This is another Big Loss. If he comes back this fall and thats a big if, he won't be like his old self.

    At least we have spring ball to look at options although not one of them can replace Butt entirely. Funchess is going to need to learn to at least be serviceable blocking.

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  8. I am having a hard time understanding how this is a coaches fault. I guess some people will find any reason to bash this staff. Now that Borges is gone looks like public enemy number one is the s&c coach with funk a close second

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  9. This has been happening almost since the day these guys got on campus. Is there a particular exercise they are doing that puts stress on the acl? Maybe they should be consulting some md's....call James Andrews fergodsakes and have him evaluate the entire workout regimen.

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  10. This has been happening almost since the day these guys got on campus. Is there a particular exercise they are making them do that puts unnecessary stress on the acl? Maybe they should be consulting some md's......call Dr James Andrews fergodsakes and have him evaluate the entire workout regimen.

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  11. Sorry for the double post. I'm on my phone and didn't think the first one went through.

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