Butler Out to Shed The Label. Again
After a series of setbacks, tight end eager to return to prominent role
Potential. The word carries so much weight.
Not all of it is good, either, depending on how it’s used. The inflection of the voice as it is uttered can turn it around. A stress on a particular syllable leads to a sarcastic tone, turning the true definition of promise to implying a wasted opportunity.
Cameron Butler knows all about the multiple meanings. It was a label placed upon him his freshman season. Now it’s coming back around to him.
As a senior.
It can feel like somebody has stuffed his backpack full of rocks.
“You like that word, but you don’t like that word, because it means you haven’t done anything yet,” Butler said after having just finished a lifting session. “It’s crazy to see where it’s led. When I came here, that word was thrown around a lot. Now, even in my fifth year, it’s potential, potential. I just kind of want to do everything I can to erase that word.”
He did his part to do so as a true freshman, when, with Dalton Fackrell as the main target at the position, Butler played in all 13 games, catching 12 passes for 171 yards and three scores. He had a long reception of 50 yards, averaging 14.3 yards per catch.
The next season, in the lead role with Trey McBride as the newcomer, Butler played in every game, producing 29 receptions for 312 yards, and nobody was using the word anymore, having moved on to chatter about him continually improving, especially as a point-of-attack blocker.
People were impressed. Butler was not really among them.
“I actually think my sophomore year was a disappointment,” he said. “I honestly thought my junior year, my first five games, were the most complete games I’ve ever played. The first two years, my stats looked kinda good, but I didn’t feel as confident as I did my third year. Me and Trey that year, I think we really stepped up that summer and dove straight in. Everybody knows that we can catch the ball and all of that, but I was never regarded as one of people who can block. Like the word potential, that kinda pissed me off a little it. That third year, I was hungry just to get in the trenches and block, really.”
Butler never viewed McBride as a threat to his position on the team, but as a person he could rely on and grow with. McBride wanted to be Butler, even better, and Butler drew the same motivation from the youngster.
They were just starting to click as a tight end duo when Butler’s run with injuries began.
“He was the guy here. He drove me to be better than him, because I wanted to be that guy,” McBride said. “It’s been unfortunate with his injuries. He really has helped me and developed me, and to this day, he still pushes me. He doesn’t want me to be anything less than what I can be. He told me the other day he doesn’t want me to be a third-round draft pick, he doesn’t want me to be a second-round draft pick, he wants me to be the top guy, because he knows that’s my potential. He pushes me to be the best version of me I can be. And by him doing what he does, that drives me to be successful.”
Butler hurt his shoulder that seventh game of 2019, requiring surgery, missing the final five games after catching eight passes for 72 yards and a score. In the process of putting that behind him, a new coaching staff arrived. And before they really had a chance to get to know Butler, he was down again, this time with a much more severe injury.
He ruptured his Achilles’ tendon the eighth day of summer camp, and for him, the pain went beyond the physical, mainly because of McBride.
“When I first tore it – and I picture that moment all the time – I came off to the sideline and (then head football trainer) Tony Hill told me when he felt my ankle it didn’t look good, and I could tell,” Butler said. “I broke down and cried, but it wasn’t really about me at that point. I thought I was never going to get to play with Trey again, and that’s why I was so upset. I’m grateful to have this opportunity again. I replay that play in my head a lot, but we come back from these things.”
One could have a rather nasty argument over at Canvas Stadium about who is happier McBride turned down the opportunity to be part of the NFL Draft this year, instead deciding to return for his final season. The truth is, a boatload of people would take part in the discussion.
The truth is, it doesn’t really matter to Butler who would win the discussion. All that does matter is he is happy about having another season with his teammate and what McBride being around will mean to his return.
They both make each other better. Butler once told former coach Mike Bobo he felt McBride had made him a better tight end than any coach. As much as McBride wanted to run routes like Butler, Butler wanted to do things like McBride. Just go down the checklist, they both will sell the accolades of the other. In the end, they both help make the other tick, and right now, Butler needs it as he plays catchup.
The sooner he can get to the field, the quicker he can make the bothersome word disappear.
“I think Cam has more potential than anybody. He’s an NFL tight end, in my opinion. He’s a really good player, really smart,” McBride said. “I don’t think there’s much potential there -- it’s all there. He just has to become healthy and show the world what he can do. He’s an excellent player. He’s someone I know can play football, someone I know who is very successful, can be an All-American. He can do everything I’ve done. There’s no doubt about that, because I’ve seen his potential and I know how good of a football player he can be.”
It’s crazy to see where it’s led. When I came here, that word was thrown around a lot. Now, even in my fifth year, it’s potential, potential. I just kind of want to do everything I can to erase that word.Cameron Butler
An Achilles’ injury is nasty. It requires surgery for repair as soon as possible, which Butler had. He went down Aug. 5, he was in the recovery room three days later. The road back is arduous. He basically had to learn to walk again, so just imagine what that meant to relearning the footwork to set up blocks or run a crossing route.
He has a hard time explaining what it really feels like, and the best he can produce is the ankle feels hollow. He is now convinced the joint is the most important part of the body, especially since he’s learned just how much he depends upon it working well on the field, especially in the explosive movements it dictates.
When he was in the training room, Hill gave him a pat on the back, then gave him some space to be emotional with his mom, Mia McLeod (a state senator representing District 22 in South Carolina), and dad. Brian Butler, on the phone. By the time Hill reentered the training room, Cam had a smile on his face.
His mother has battled with sickle cell anemia her whole life. He’s seen her sick, and he’s seen her hospitalized. He has never seen her quit, but he has witnessed as she surpassed other’s expectations of what they felt she could accomplish.
His father, he said, came from nothing and has become successful. Cam has never seen his father cry, but he has seen him work hard.
These days, a smile on Cam’s face is normal. What the stretch of injuries taught him was how much he cared about the game and the teammates he plays for and with on a daily basis. The first day back this summer, he gathered with the tight end room and explained his emotional ride. The two years of lonely nights away from the game, and it showed him not to get too high or too low. But you definitely appreciate the chance.
“It’s crazy. I don’t think I really learned how important this was to me until I got injured,” he said. “I don’t think I appreciated how much I love the people that I’m around until I got injured. That’s the best part of playing football. When you’re in the huddle and I see Trey – 8-5 is what I call him – that’s all the security you need. You can get your job done, and you know the person that you’re with battling every day is going to do the same. When he said he was coming back, it was kind of selfish of me, but I really wanted to play with him again. I was almost in tears how happy I was.”
Tight end coach Cody Booth smiles a lot himself. The Rams ran a lot of 12 personnel last year with a pair of tight ends on the field, and as Cam recovers, they plan to do it even more, only with him as part of the equation.
In McBride and Butler, they have two tight ends who can block at the point of attack. And can spread out wide. Can run routes and create mismatches. They can be interchangeable, and that makes head coach Steve Addazio smile, too.
“That room has a lot of different skill sets, but those two guys, they can do it all,” Addazio said. “We’ll be in empty, we’ll be in a conventional two tight-end set with those guys. We’ll be all over the place with those two guys. Don’t look at one of them as a blocker, look at both of them as they can both do it all.
“That’s why they’re unique, and that’s what makes that style of offense unique. That’s the cool part of it. A team is defending you, and A, they can’t substitute, because you don’t substitute and we play in tempo. Then B, they have to defend every formation out there, and they have to be worried as much about the throw as much as they have to be worried about the run. Do we play nickel? We can’t play nickel, so we stay in base. And when they stay in base, we have mismatches.”
Cam is still a few weeks away from being cleared completely, but that hasn’t slowed him down. He’s not worried about getting injured again because he knows that’s when injuries can tend to occur. Booth was more than impressed with Cam for those eight days he had him, noting he was improving as a blocker. He could see on tape Cam really wanted to excel in that role, and in practice, he was starting to do just that as it became a real priority in his work.
Each day since the injury, Booth has learned a little bit more about the player in his room, which only has him more anxious for his return.
“Since then, he’s been working his butt off. He’s always asking for more,” Booth said. “He’s very determined. He’s the type of kid, ‘what’s next? Give me more.’
“He’s trying to get himself out of the comfort zone and be a leader, alongside of Trey and Brian Polendey. I’ve got them spearheading this thing, getting the young guys around it, doing some things together as a unit, as a room.”
Booth explains the asks are not just physical. When Cam asks why – which he does a lot – it’s not why he has to do it, but what it really means. Cam wants the deeper knowledge about the leverage of a block, the hand placement in the dirt to gain an edge. Then he wants to know about how a defense is structured and what it’s targeting in certain formations, and in turn, what opens up for the offense to attack.
After two years, Cam figures seeking more isn’t too much to expect from him.
“We’re so excited as a staff,” Booth said. “The players, I know they are just as excited. They know the potential that he has. He’s very underrated right now.”
For now. Butler has put in his time in rehab to be ready. He’s done the lifts and the strength test, and he’s passing each one. It why he’s always asking for the next thing, because by this point, he’s itching to return.
With each checkpoint he passes, the closer he gets. McBride is more than encouraged by what he’s seen in the weight room, during team runs and individual position drills.
Next will come team workouts in the summer as the players gather to reinstall the systems before the start of fall camp.
“The thing I’m looking forward to is going between the practice-field gates, running out with my cleats and pads on, feeling it again. The first hit, I’ll probably laugh like a little kid again, but it’s just being able to run around and play football again. Whatever happens, I’m glad to be back.”
People do remember. Cam was good. Really good. He plans to be again, and the entire program is rooting for him.
In 2021, Cam is out to remind everybody – even himself -- as well as shedding the baggage of a loathsome label.
“I am personally out to prove something,” he said. “Not only to people who watched me, but to myself, that I can reach that potential.
“There’s that word.”
When he says it, he shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. Then he lifts his chin, and he smiles.
It took him two seasons to erase it before. There’s no reason in his mind to believe he can’t do the same again.