Displaying items by tag: Kevin Butler
Georgia specialists wait for Draft Day call
Draft history is loaded with tales of teams surprising even those whom they select.
Such is Kevin Butler’s story. Let’s turn back the clock to 1985. Butler, then a highly regarded placekicking prospect from Georgia, expected the Bills or Dolphins to draft him. Instead, the Bears, who already had an established placekicker in Bob Thomas, took him, and in Round Four, earlier than Butler expected.
“Wow, they’re just wanting me to push this veteran,” Butler thought at the time.
Ultimately, Butler won the job for a team that would go on to win the Super Bowl in his first NFL season. And he learned a lesson about teams and their draft picks.
“Teams don’t use draft picks to push people,” Butler said. “They use them with the expectation that you can certainly contribute.”
One round before Butler was selected in 1985, the Rams selected Clemson P Dale Hatcher. The Buccaneers took Hatcher’s college teammate, PK Donald Igwebuike, in Round 10. No punter-placekicker tandems from the same school have been selected in the same draft since.
But that could change later this week. Georgia P Drew Butler, Kevin Butler’s son, is PFW’s top-rated player at his position, and he stands a reasonable chance to be drafted. Likewise, Georgia PK Blair Walsh sits atop PFW’s position rankings. Butler, according to PFW’s 2012 Draft Preview, could go in Rounds Five or Six, with Walsh potentially coming off the board in Rounds Six or Seven.
Butler, who captured the Ray Guy Award as college football’s top punter in 2009, averaged 44.2 yards on 58 punts as a senior. The right-footed Butler, personnel analyst Nolan Nawrocki wrote in PFW’s 2012 Draft Preview, is a “(s)trong-legged, consistent, pedigreed, polished punter” who is “pro-ready, worthy of a draft pick and should have longetivity like his father.”
Kevin Butler, who played 13 NFL seasons, believes Drew’s all-around game, including his leg strength and directional kicking, will serve him well.
“He’s an efficient kicker,” Kevin Butler said. “As a punter goes, you have to be efficient.”
Drew Butler is confident he can kick at the next level.
“I know my talent and my technique will translate well,” he said.
He also knows he’s fortunate to have his father as a resource.
“He’s walked (in) these shoes, and he understands what it takes to be successful at the next level,” Drew Butler said.
Walsh, like Drew Butler, had great success early in his collegiate career. Walsh earned Georgia’s PK job as a true freshman, and as a sophomore, he connected on 20-of-22 field-goal attempts. The following season, he connected on 20-of-23 FG attempts. But as a senior, Walsh struggled, hitting just 21 field goals in 35 tries.
Kevin Butler, who’s part of the radio broadcast team for Georgia games, saw first-hand as Walsh worked to recapture his best form. Walsh’s problems, the elder Butler said, were a case of someone who badly wanted to do well for his teammates.
“I started pressing a little too much,” Walsh admitted.
Georgia head coach Mark Richt believes Walsh’s body of work and talent will get him an NFL shot — and that he will make the most of it.
“The guy is just so strong fundamentally and so strong physically,” Richt said in March. "Somebody’s going to be real excited about him, and he’s going to get back on the track he had his sophomore and junior year, which was phenomenal, and he’s going to be a great pro for a long time, I believe.”
Walsh has NFL-caliber leg strength; he drilled 10-of-16 FG attempts of 50 yards or more, and he kicked off very well at the NFL Scouting Combine, according to Kevin Butler. Like Drew Butler, Walsh went through a handful of private workouts for NFL clubs.
Walsh doesn’t duck questions about his final season in Athens, but he is understandably ready to turn the page.
“I’ve moved on, and I’m ready to go,” he said.
It is now all over but the waiting for Walsh and Butler. If their phones ring during the draft, it likely will be on Saturday, when Rounds 4-7 are held. Each will play golf to pass the time on Saturday — Walsh with his sister, who will play golf for UGA next year; and Butler with his father.
Kevin Butler expects Drew to be drafted. He notes that a pair of former Bears teammates — Ron Rivera in Carolina and Jeff Fisher in St. Louis — could be adding punters.
By the same token, Kevin Butler wants to prepare his son for the prospect of going undrafted.
“That’s the life of a kicker,” Kevin Butler said of such uncertainty. “Welcome to the kicker fraternity.”
It's an exclusive club, one with no legacy bids. So if Drew Butler’s cell phone rings on Saturday, he will have earned it. And should that call come in the final four rounds, it won’t be an offer to be a camp leg.
His father can tell him a thing or two about that.
Drew Butler following in father's footsteps
By D. Orlando Ledbetter / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even for a kicker, Kevin Butler had major swagger back as he became a Georgia legend in the 1980s and plied his wares in the NFL for 13 seasons.
Butler was known for his long-range field goals, his antics and for making clutch kicks. He was widely accepted by his teammates, who nicknamed him “Butthead.”
Fast forward a few decades and three of Butler’s former Chicago teammates are NFL head coaches, and two are looking for a punter.
“If you want somebody who’s been there and knows what to expect of it, Drew falls into that category,” Kevin Butler said of his son, one of the top-rated punters in the NFL draft. “I think [Rams coach] Jeff Fisher and certainly [Panthers coach] Ron Rivera know what kind of person and kicker they are going to get out of my son.”
The Butlers haven’t heard from Leslie Frazier, another ex-Chicago Bear, who is the head coach at Minnesota.
Drew Butler averaged 45.2 yards on 168 career punts for Georgia. He placed 60 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line and was not charged with a blocked punt.
All of that, makes Kevin Butler, who became a Bulldogs legend after making a 60-yarder to defeat No. 2-ranked Clemson in 1984, a very proud father.
“As a parent, you are just so very excited for the opportunity that he has put himself in a position for after school,” Butler said. “We’ve been supportive of everything that he’s done, certainly as the draft gets closer, I always just try to keep him balanced and keep his expectations in check.”
Butler was a fourth-round pick (105th overall) in 1985. Times have changed and teams don’t draft punters or kickers that high. However, Drew Butler is projected to be a fifth- or sixth-round pick. Last season, the Falcons made Matt Bosher the only punter drafted, in the sixth round.
“He’s worked his way into a position where a team is not going to bring him in to push somebody,” Kevin Butler said. “Drew has proven that he can kick it long and strong.”
Drew Butler, since punting in the Senior Bowl and at the scouting combine, has had six private workouts.
“They don’t waste the money on visits with kickers, but they do come and to see you,” the elder Butler noted.
Drew has worked out for the Jets, Panthers, Rams, Jaguars, Browns and the Texans.
“It’s a very specific job, and they are in high demand every year,” Butler said. “I have to be able to show that I can help a team or maybe upgrade them.”
Butler, a Peachtree Ridge High grad, has leaned heavily on his father for help throughout his career.
“My dad has been my best friend and my coach,” Butler said. “He’s definitely helped me out in college from a mental standpoint and a technical standpoint. He’s been a huge help. He’s already walked in these shoes and to be able kind of pick his brain and see how these things work and these coaches think, and how the business of the NFL goes, has been very helpful.”
The Butlers could become only the second father-son kicking specialists to reach the NFL, joining English place-kickers Bobby (1968-74, Denver, New York Jets) and Ian Howfield (1991, Houston).
In addition to Butler, one of the top kickers in the draft is Blair Walsh, another ex-Bulldog. Walsh struggled last season, making only 21 of 35 field-goal attempts, but his three previous seasons were highly productive. A strong showing at the combine helped his draft status.
Because Drew Butler and Walsh are buddies, the elder Butler has helped mentor Walsh through the process, too.
For the Butlers, it was tough watching Walsh struggle.
“Certainly, all of the Georgia fans, we kind of cried and hurt with him as the year went on,” Kevin Butler said. “He got into a little bit of a jam out there on the field. He never really let it bother him to a point where he became distracted and didn’t keep concentrating.”
After the season, Walsh worked on the leg motion on his kicks.
“He changed his kicking a little bit,” Kevin Butler said. “He worked on it with his coach, and he’s continually working on it. His combine was the best by far of the kickers.”
Walsh believes his woes are over. “We’ve been doing intense training to make sure that I’m in the best shape of my life, and we’re making sure that my technique is fundamentally correct,” Walsh said. “I have to maintain my power and speed.”
Butler enters American Football Kicking HOF
By Scott Michaux / The Augusta Chronicle
Try this illuminating exercise at home.
Go to the search page on the College Football Hall of Fame’s Web site and choose inductees by position.
Only one name pops up when you select punter – Thomson’s own Ray Guy.
Only one name pops up when you select place-kicker – Savannah-born and Stone Mountain-bred Kevin Butler.
That two native Georgians hold the monopoly on collegiate recognition isn’t the shocking part. That the extent of the kicking lists end with two in a sport called football remains one of the most troubling oversights in the game’s historical annals. It’s only slightly less troubling than the fact that just one pure kicker has ever graced the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Jan Stenerud).
Thankfully, the Augusta Sports Council has taken up the cause to heap praise on those who deserve more credit in the craft of kicking. On Thursday night, Butler joined greats like Guy and Stenerud in the American Football kicking Hall of Fame.
“To make it into a hall of fame for that position, it’s probably the highest honor you can get if not the highest coming from other kickers,” Butler said.
Butler was enshrined Thursday night along with the late Jerrel Wilson, a punter for 15 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs (1963-77) who led the AFL and NFL in punting average four times. Wilson also kicked for Guy’s alma mater, Southern Miss.
Butler’s standout career with the Georgia Bulldogs and the Chicago Bears took him to Sugar Bowls and Super Bowls. He set team, NCAA and franchise records along the way and earned a world championship ring with the 1985 Bears.
Yet he hates that more of his peers and predecessors don’t get enough mainstream recognition for their integral role in a team game.
“We’re an afterthought,” Butler said. “It’s a team sport, yet they’re going to discard this one part of it? It’s so funny because it’s that roulette part. You’re going to pull the trigger on it and it’s either good or bad. For players to discount that is just boneheaded and blindness for not recognizing it.”
Butler and his son, Drew, are the only related tandem to be recognized at the annual All-Area Football Banquet. Drew Butler won the Ray Guy Award in 2009 as the nation’s best punter as a sophomore at Georgia. In a few months he might make the Butlers only the second father-son kicking specialists to reach the NFL, joining English place-kickers Bobby and Ian Howfield.
The elder Butler believes his son – who learned to punt at Guy’s kicking camp in 10th grade – has what it takes to have a 13-year career as he had.
“The potential that Drew has gets me excited,” Butler said. “Certainly I was excited when I played and had that potential and opportunity. You just want him to have those same opportunities. The way he goes about preparing is very professional. … You just have to take advantage of whatever opportunity comes. There’s only 32 positions in the world and you’re trying to get one of them. Just be ready.”
Butler’s enshrinement caps a memorable year. Not only did he get to follow Drew’s senior campaign to an SEC East title as a radio host covering the Bulldogs, one of Butler’s greatest feats got widely recalled. The passing of Georgia play-by-play legend Larry Munson brought renewed attention to Butler’s famous 60-yard field goal that beat No. 2 Clemson in 1984.
“So we’ll try to kick one a hundred thousand miles,” Munson said in setting up the winning attempt placed a half-yard on Georgia’s side of the 50. “And Butler kicked a long one – a long one! Oh my God! Oh my God! The stadium is worse than bonkers. Eleven seconds. I can’t believe what he did. This is ungodly.”
It was so clutch that famed columnist Lewis Grizzard wrote a letter to the son he hoped to one day have and name Kevin in Butler’s honor.
“I hugged perfect strangers and kissed a fat lady on the mouth,” Grizzard wrote of that moment in Sanford Stadium. “Grown men wept. Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled. Stars fell, and joy swept through, fetched by a hurricane of unleashed emotions.”
It was a week later before Butler, at his parents’ urging, heard that Munson call he has grown to appreciate even more through the years.
“I probably get more stories of people coming up to me and telling me they remember exactly where they were,” Butler said. “That’s pretty cool. You don’t want to be on the other end of that story. People don’t come up to you and say, ‘I remember where I was when you missed that field goal.’”
It’s been an extraordinary postseason for kicking failures, including Georgia’s Blair Walsh missing two in overtime at the Outback Bowl, Stanford’s kicker Jordan Williamson failing in regulation and overtime of the Fiesta Bowl, and Baltimore’s Billy Cundiff missing a relatively short effort that would have sent the AFC Championship into overtime.
Butler sees these failures and others like them as just another example of the value of kicking being overlooked.
“I squarely blame it on the coaches,” Butler said. “As silly as that sounds, the coaches at the high school, college and pro levels draft and sign punters and then send them off to a field to miraculously get better by themselves. I’ve never known a coach to draft a quarterback and told him to go throw over on the other field and be ready Saturday or Sunday. They coach them. They coach them on technique and mental ability. And for some odd reason, coaches just don’t recognize that for kickers.”
Does he cringe whenever a kicker fails in the spotlight?
“I feel for them unless it’s somebody missing a kick against Georgia,” Butler said.
“Then it’s just tough luck at that point. But I do feel for them. How could you not? I’ve been there and done that. There’s a lot of people behind that kicker who are affected by it – his family and maybe he has kids. You’ve got to live that for a week until you get another shot or live that for a whole off-season, which is a horrible thing.”
Butler has earned his just due for a career living on the edge of heroics and disaster that kickers often walk without enough appreciation.
Maybe one day he and Guy and another ex-Bulldog such as ageless NFL veteran John Kasay will see the door opened to them in the big hall of fame.
Until then, kickers will just have to enjoy relevance in the moment when called upon.
“It’s a big part of the game and I’m sure one of those kickers will play a big part in it Sunday,” said Butler of the upcoming Super Bowl.
Maybe if they’re really lucky, they too can inspire a fan base to go worse than bonkers.
Drew Butler trying to make impression
Atlanta Journal Constitution
MOBILE — Former Georgia punter Drew Butler has heard some war stories this week about his father, Kevin Butler, who played 13 seasons in the NFL.
The younger Butler is set to punt and hold on field goals and extra points for the South squad in the 63rd annual Senior Bowl at 4 p.m. Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
“Some guys actually scouted my dad,” Butler said. “Some guys have coached my dad. Coach [Mike] Singletary and coach [Leslie] Frazier on the Minnesota Vikings staff played with him.
“So there are a lot of connections for sure. Some of them feel old because they are scouting me and they scouted my dad. It’s cool. It all kind of comes full circle, and that’s definitely exciting.”
Butler, who played at Peachtree Ridge High, averaged 45.2 yards per punt at Georgia. He’s the second rated punter in the senior class by ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper. California’s Bryan Anger is the top rated punter.
“My dad laid out such a good framework for me to build upon,” Butler said. “Having the opportunities that I had at Georgia and being able to capitalize on them was a huge blessing.”
The Falcons drafted Matt Bosher in the sixth round of the 2011 draft. He was the only punter selected. A lot of NFL teams like to sign punters as free agents. Butler hopes to show teams that he’s worthy of being drafted.
“I think my career, in and of itself, has proven that I’m worth spending a draft pick on,” Butler said. “I’ve been a consistent performer for three years. I’ve proven that I’m able to do whatever a coach has asked me to do: directional kick, kick it high, pin somebody inside the 20 and kick it long to get us out of a jam.
“That’s one of my strengths as a punter. I look at this week as a cherry on top of a good career.”