Long road worth it for Butler

By Brian Hunsicker

Published: August 28, 2008

Deon Butler’s had a good ride. During his senior year at Hylton, he had no scholarship offers from top-level Division I schools. He left for Penn State as a walk-on, hoping to make an impact at one of the most prominent football schools in the Northeast.
Four years later, he enters his senior season as one of the school’s most prolific receivers.
“Of course there’s some satisfaction, because I’ve achieved a lot, but one of my goals here was to play on a national championship team,” Butler said this week. That goal remains unfinished; the No. 22 Nittany Lions came closest in 2005, when they went 11-1 and finished third in the final Associated Press poll.
“I’m pleased so far with my individual accomplishments,” he added, but said he realizes there’s plenty more work to be done.
“Deon is a playmaker. He catches everything thrown in his direction. He has been opening people’s eyes since he got here,” offensive coordinator Galen Hall told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week.
Penn State’s offense will be the focal point of this year’s squad. The Lions have a veteran offensive line and a solid running back, Westfield grad Evan Royster. The only question mark has been at quarterback, where senior Daryll Clark and junior Pat Devlin spent the preseason fighting for the starting job. Clark eventually won out and will start on Saturday against Coastal Carolina.
But it’s the receivers that have received the most acclaim in the preseason. The three starters — Butler, Derrick Williams and Jordan Norwood — are experienced and talented. Those three will lead the way as the Lions begin running an offense dubbed “Spread HD.” Some reports have indicated that the Spread HD, which debuted in Penn State’s win over Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl, tweaks what the Lions have done in the past.
Butler said they haven’t practiced any new plays this year, though they have lined up in formations that hadn’t been used in a few years.
The new offense and the quarterback, whoever it is, will guide the Lions through their non-conference slate — besides the Chanticleers, Penn State hosts Oregon State and Temple while traveling to Syracuse — and into a torturous Big Ten schedule. On three consecutive weeks in October, the Lions visit No. 13 Wisconsin, host Michigan and travel to No. 2 Ohio State.
It will be Butler’s final trip through the Big Ten wars. Even if an NFL career isn’t in the works, he has a line of work in mind and had a three-week internship this summer.
“It was very humbling,” he said. “It was with the Philadelphia [Police’s] homicide department.”
Butler is majoring in forensic science, and the internship was set up by department director Dr. Robert Shaler. Shaler led New York City’s efforts to identify all of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; he had previously worked for the city’s chief medical examiner.
Though it was a short assignment, Butler assisted at crime scenes — “I was behind the yellow tape,” he said. He searched for evidence, placed markers and helped coordinate photographers. The chance of being called to testify in court limited what he could do, however.
Butler stayed busy; according to the FBI’s preliminary 2007 report, Philadelphia ranked third in the country with 392 murders. According the city’s police Web site, there have been 206 this year.
He said he had no problems working in close quarters with a body and blood, but seeing young victims was difficult to stomach.
“There were a lot of young kids being shot, a couple under the age of 12,” Butler said. “That’s some tough stuff.”