Deon Butler

About Deon Butler

Vincent Deon Butler (born January 4, 1986, in Fairfax, Virginia) is a collegiate American football player, playing wide receiver for the Penn State Nittany Lions. A former walk-on defensive back, Butler has since become a record setting receiver for Coach Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions. Butler passed Bobby Engram to become Penn State's all-time receptions leader in November of his senior season against the Indiana Hoosiers.

Coming out of C. D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge, Virginia, Butler was offered scholarships to several smaller schools, but decided to follow his mother's advice of "shooting for the moon",[citation needed] and enrolled at Penn State without an athletic scholarship.

After redshirting as a freshman, Butler rose to the top of the depth chart alongside Derrick Williams to provide a solid deep threat for quarterbacks Michael Robinson and Anthony Morelli. During his freshmen season, Butler broke four school freshmen records: season receptions (37), receiving yards in a game (125, versus Wisconsin), season yards (691), and touchdown catches (9). Butler also holds the single game receiving yards record with 216 yards on 11 receptions against Northwestern on September 30, 2006. He finished 2007 with 47 receptions for 633 yards and 4 touchdowns. He had a season high 7 catches for 93 yards and a touchdown in Penn States 38-7 blowout win over Wisconsin. So far, throughout the 2008 season Butler has caught 30 passes for 486 yards and 3 touchdowns, catching 8 of those for 105 yards against Michigan.