'Nothing beats the game': Rising star Jake Butt found passion for broadcasting, launches new show

It’s Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind., and Jake Butt — a Michigan former two-time All-American tight end — is calling the first game of his “sophomore season” as a broadcaster for Big Ten Network. Purdue leads Fresno State, 21-17, at the break, and Bulldogs slot receiver Erik Brooks has already had a whale of an afternoon, catching 6 passes for 117 yards in the first half against an inexperienced and thin Boilermaker secondary.

The Boilermakers had safety Cam Allen (6-1, 195) on the 5-7, 171-pounder — “like the quickest dude” Butt has “ever seen” — but he doesn’t have enough speed to stay on him on a consistent basis.

Butt is game planning with his producer, Bart Fox, predicting how the Boilermakers will adjust coming out of halftime.

“They’re going to have to take their best corner and move him inside to play nickel, because they don’t have a nickel,” Butt told Fox.

Sure enough, on Fresno State’s first possession of the second half, the Boilermakers placed cornerback Markevious Brown on Brooks. Brown blanketed Brooks in coverage on third down, forcing a punt after the three-and-out.

“When that comes true, we were like, ‘Hell yeah!'” Butt told TheWolverine.com, reflecting back from his Ann Arbor hotel room ahead of calling Michigan vs. Rutgers.

During football season, the most enjoyable three-and-a-half hours of Butt’s week are the games he calls alongside play-by-play commentator Cory Provus and sideline reporter Brooke Fletcher. It gets the juices flowing, and seeing the hard work done throughout the week pay off is rewarding.

“It’s just like playing. Practice is fun — I always loved practice — but nothing beats the game,” Butt said.

Other highlights include weekly meetings with the coaches of the teams he’s set to cover and the Big Ten Network team’s Friday night dinner in the college town they’ve been sent to that week (in Ann Arbor Sept. 22, the group dined at Black Pearl, an upscale seafood and martini bar).

After near ‘divorce from football,’ Jake Butt found new passion

Truth be told, the 2016 John Mackey Award winner for college football’s top tight end didn’t plan on being a broadcaster. Injuries derailed his career in the NFL, after being drafted by the Denver Broncos in the fifth round in 2017, when he was coming off a torn ACL suffered in the Dec. 31, 2016 Orange Bowl against Florida State. He retired from football after a short stint with the Chicago Bears during 2021 training camp. For some time, he thought that might have been his farewell from the game.

“When I retired, man, I don’t think people understand how often guys struggle with that transition, myself included, because I always thought of myself as a football player, and I took great pride in that,” Butt explained. “Any time someone introduced me, if I’m going to a dinner or a party or hanging out with people, it’s like, ‘Hey, this is Jake Butt. He played football for Michigan,’ or, ‘he played football for the Denver Broncos.’ So, your name is attached with that identity. And then literally, one day it’s attached and the next day it isn’t attached. 

“For me, with the injuries, it was very abrupt and just kind of completely against every single way I thought my life and my career was going to go. There was a period there where I thought I was going to get a divorce from football. It was painful to be around the game and painful to watch. I actually didn’t think I was going to get into sports broadcasting.”

Isaiah Hole — renowned Michigan football reporter and podcaster, and the publisher of USA Today’s Wolverines Wire — asked Butt to join him on air to break down Michigan football during the 2021 season, a process he enjoyed.

“At the end of the year, I looked back at the fall and I was like, man, it was a tough transition, but the best times were always when I was talking about football,” Butt said.

“I had to be honest with myself about that. That podcast led to opportunities with Sirius XM, which led me to join the Big Ten Network every now and then, which led them to asking me to call the [Michigan] spring game [in April 2022]. Funny enough, I told them ‘no,’ because I was still hesitant about joining the media space. I eventually came around to saying ‘yes.’

“That spring game was when I got the clarity I needed. The whole week leading up to it, I was so nervous. I was like, ‘How the hell am I supposed to talk on live television and not make any mistakes for two, three hours?’ And it went really, really well, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, OK, that was fun.’

“There’s this funny thing that the pressure and the nervousness and the preparation and the want to do well and do right by the network and by Michigan with it being the spring game, that all led to a reward when my preparation came through and I had a good call. It led to a reward at the end of the game, where I was like, ‘Holy shit, that went pretty well, actually, for having never done any of that and had no training at all.’

“That spring game was all of the sudden it was just like my eyes open again. I was like, ‘OK, this is what I want to do.’”

Others, including television networks, wanted him to do it, too. Ahead of the 2022 season, Butt chose a job as a studio and game analyst for Big Ten Network over other opportunities, and he’s taken off ever since.

He takes great pride in being a Michigan great, but his goal is to be “known as an analyst.”

“[ESPN and Amazon’s] Kirk Herbstreit, the average person has no idea he went to Ohio State,” Butt pointed out. “They just think he’s a good analyst. I try to shut out the noise. I’m not always good at it, but I’m paid to analyze the game, unbiased. What I see, I’m going to tell you what I see. And I’m going to tell you from my preparation — and I will be prepared — why this matters, why this happened, why we should expect more of it or less of it, why this is new.”

Calling Michigan games is a special experience. Butt was on the mic for two in a row this September, at The Big House for U-M’s tilts against Bowling Green and Rutgers. He called two in 2022 — versus Hawaii and Rutgers.

“This year, I had Ohio State’s game [against Youngstown State] Week 2, and you know I’m from Columbus, so I went to my hometown Week 2, was the way I was saying it, but I went ‘home’ Week 3,” Butt said. “Ann Arbor is always — I don’t know, there’s something about this place, man. I met my fiancé here, all my best friends here. Had some great memories here, had some tough times, some good times.

“This place is so damn special, and I love [Michigan head] Coach [Jim] Harbaugh. I love the men in the arena — the players — too. That’s always really cool.”

Jake Butt, former Ohio State star Joshua Perry launch new show on Stadium

Butt and former Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry, an NBC Sports analyst, are co-hosts for Stadium’s new show ‘Red Corner Blue Corner,’ which launched Sept. 25 and runs every Monday-Thursday from 2-2:30 p.m. ET. The show focuses on the Big Ten conference and taps into the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry. It can be streamed on Stadium’s YouTube channel or through the Bally Live app.

Perry is one of Butt’s closest confidants in the business, having been a huge help as he started his media career.

I leaned a lot on Joshua Perry in my first year, just like, ‘Hey man, where are my blind spots how do you prepare for this show? How do you prepare for this show?’ Every show is different, it’s got its own cadence.

“Joshua and I worked together [at Big Ten Network] last year. I would watch him, observe him to try to tailor my own game. We always knew — we would have conversations where it was like, ‘Man, we really should do a show together because we have such great chemistry.’ We see the game very similarly.

“I felt that this was just a matter of time before we had this show. I think we both agreed that this was going to happen eventually. Just happy it happened as soon as it has here in my career and his career.”

The show is interactive with its live virtual audience, and fans are encouraged to chat and interact with the hosts.

The two will have their banter about the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, but they’ll also break down the rest of the conference in the context of the sport at large, and have fun doing it.

“There are tiers to football. Michigan and Ohio State, it’s up there. It’s up there. Big Ten conference, it’s up there,” Butt said.

“To be able to cover a game with a friend, with someone I respect, that I know knows the game of football, and to cover it in our conference, leaning into the rivalry, I can’t literally think of anything more perfect.”