ACE: 2013 DE Jake Butt Offered (With Interview)

Submitted by Ace on

Pickerington (OH) North defensive end Jake Butt, a four-star and the #70 player overall in the 2013 247Sports rankings, visited the Big House on Saturday holding offers from Bowling Green, Buffalo, Duke, Iowa, Kent State, Maryland, Northwestern, Purdue, Syracuse, Toledo, and UCLA. Today, he added two schools to that list, Indiana and Michigan. Jake was busy fielding congratulatory phone calls and interview requests, but took the time for a quick chat this afternoon:

ACE: First of all, you visited for the Ohio State game, what was that experience like for you?

JAKE: It was crazy, you know, it was unbelievable. I was blessed because I also got to go to the Notre Dame game, and those were two excellent games to be down in the Big House for. It was amazing.

ACE: You just got your Michigan offer. How'd you learn that you were getting the offer, and what does it mean in terms of your recruitment?

JAKE: Actually, it started off earlier today, I got offered by Indiana as well. My coach texted me in class and told me congratulations and that Indiana had offered me, so I was really excited about that. I didn't really expect to get offered. Their recruiting coordinator, Coach Smith, was in practice today—I thought he was just checking me out, to see my size, see me move a little bit in person. Then I actually got a text from a few people saying congratulations on the offer to Michigan, and I hadn't heard news of it yet, so I called my head coach and was like, "Has Michigan offered?" and he said "Yeah." I'm really excited about both the offers, for sure.

ACE: So where do you stand now in terms of what schools have shown the most interest. Have you been able to narrow it down at all or are you still trying to figure things out?

JAKE: It's still too early for me to narrow anything down. I'm getting a lot of great opportunities right now, but it's still much too early for me to narrow anything down.

ACE: The last time I talked to you, [Pickerington North] was 5-1 at that point. How did the season finish out for you, and how do you think you played this year?

JAKE: You know, we could've, should've finished out 10-0, but we actually finished out 8-2, and unfortunately missed the playoffs, which, just, that was a dagger, we should've made it. I can't sugarcoat it for you, we should've made those freakin' playoffs, but we didn't, so we're back at it next year. Individually, I thought it was the best season I've ever had in any of my sports.

ACE: Being at the game on Saturday, were you able to get in touch with any of the other guys being recruited by Michigan?

JAKE: Yeah, I got in touch with a few of the recruits. [Any specifically?] Yeah, my dad played rugby with a guy, his son, Sean Welsh, he's a big, big line recruit, he's a stud, I was talking to him, and I met a few kids from Trotwood too.

ACE: Do you have any idea in terms of a timeline for your recruitment, or is it still too early to say?

JAKE: Still much too early.

Comments

denardogasm

November 29th, 2011 at 5:07 PM ^

I'm really hoping we can pull in some truly elite D linemen in the 2013 class.  With Hoke and Mattison coaching them up and the linebackers and DBs we've been pulling in we could have ourselves an LSU type defense in a few years.

Ace

November 29th, 2011 at 6:04 PM ^

It's still early, but this class is likely going to be relatively small (probably around 20 recruits), and Michigan has a lot of depth at DE all of a sudden—they'll be very picky about who they take there. They're definitely going to go after DTs, however, especially if they decide to stand pat at tackle in the 2012 class, which looks to be the case right now—they'll go hard after Henry Poggi, and I expect they'll look to take a couple tackles given the lack of depth there. Again, however, it's still early to say how the numbers will shake out, and we still don't know where the 2012 kids are going to land once they get through fall camp and the staff has a better idea what position they'll play.

Old Country Blue

November 29th, 2011 at 5:31 PM ^

He reminds me a little bit of Jake Ryan. He also has great size and speed and could be a really good tight end at the next level(film showed him catching passes). I am sure he was offered as DE, but what an athlete for his size.

ChillChet

November 29th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^

Is that Permian, or are they just using their helmets?  Overall, looks to be a solid player, doesn't look at all like the 6'6, 215 he is described as, but at his age 6'2 wouldn't even be terrible.

-Chet

Asgardian

November 29th, 2011 at 10:41 PM ^

Seeing as Pickerington is basically in Columbus, I find it kind of amusing that his coach was more... proactive shall we say? in telling Jake about his Indiana offer than ours.

That's probably just the nature of recruiting Ohio talent, but it still makes me chuckle.

Congrats Jake on both offers, good luck with your senior year and in finding the school that's right for you.

JoeSchmo2

November 29th, 2011 at 11:02 PM ^

Indiana offer came earlier in the day and Michigan offer came during basketball practice. Football coach waited til after bball practice to let him know, out of respect for bball coach. I hear he is being recruited as TE or Hback. He's a stud on both sides of the ball, and he says he doesn't care where he plays as long as he's on the field. He's a young junior (16), born July, 1995 and should fill out nicely the next few years, especially with the Michigan strength program.

Picktown GoBlue

November 30th, 2011 at 2:10 AM ^

as far as Michigan recruiting goes.  I think I've seen every game the last two years and this most recent year he's certainly been a big part of the offense, I think usually lining up as a TE.  The sophomore highlight reel above only had him on one snap on offense, but he seemed to be in for almost every down in the junior year.  This team only lost to Pickerington Central by 3 in the last minute of the game; reverse that outcome and North would have made the playoffs instead of Central (who's playing for the state championship this weekend).