MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. _ Jake Butt knew Friday would be the final game of his storied Michigan career.
But it ended in a way he could never imagine.
Michigan's two-time All-America tight end suffered a significant knee injury in the second quarter of U-M's 33-32 Orange Bowl loss to Florida State that likely will impact his football career well beyond leaving Friday's game early.
"Not sure yet, MCL or ACL," U-M coach Jim Harbaugh said in the postgame news conference.
On Saturday, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that it was indeed a torn ACL for Butt, who'll require surgery.
For Butt, it's devastating news.
He bypassed the NFL draft last year to play his final season for the Wolverines and accomplish goals he and the team hadn't reached during his first three years. He was already an All-American and knew the injury risk having already torn his ACL in the spring before his sophomore year yet still returned.
Butt made it through this year, leading as Michigan's co-captain, and played again at an All-America level, winning the John Mackey Award as the nation's top tight end.
Then when 10:48 remained in the second quarter Friday, he caught a pass and was hit inside the Florida State 10-yard line. Instantly he knew something was wrong as he lay on the ground and showed that as he took off his helmet. Trainers came out and talked to him and he slowly rose and walked himself off the field and to the locker room. But he did not return to the game.
After the game he did not appear in the media portion of the postgame locker room, but sent out a tweet saying he never considered skipping the game to preserve his draft status. He even battled through a sickness this past week.
"never once crossed my mind to sit this game out and I would never change that mindset. I play this game bc I love it, my teammates, coaches," he tweeted early Saturday morning.
That was one of a string of tweets where he praised his teammates, writing "Xtremely proud of the way these guys competed 2nite. Left it all out there! Its been a great 4 years (at) this univ & I wouldnt change anything" and "Thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes. God has a plan for me and I know through him I can overcome anything!"
Though this surely will affect his NFL draft stock, Butt proved last time to be a quick healer, suffering his injury in mid-February and was back on the field for the Wolverines by mid-October of that year.
"Obviously that's a huge blow," U-M quarterback Wilton Speight said. "As an offensive schematic standpoint, obviously it hurts. But it hurts to see him in his last game _ I don't know what happened, but I know it was serious enough to put him out for the rest of the game, so that's a punch to the feelings, I guess, when you see your boy that you've been with for three years now that put so much into this program go down like that. But I know he's going to be fine. He'll recover just like any other injury he's had."
