John Butler Position: Secondary Coach

Secondary Coach

John Butler comes to Penn State after helping South Carolina to the greatest season in its gridiron history. A graduate of LaSalle College High School in suburban Philadelphia, he served as the Gamecocks' special teams coordinator and coached the spur linebacker in 2011. The Gamecocks won a school record 11 games this past season and earned their first Top 10 finish in the polls (No. 8 in USA Today Coaches and No. 9 in AP). In the season opener, Butler's preparation helped the Gamecocks return their first punt for a touchdown since 2003. He worked with linebacker Antonio Allen, who earned second-team All-SEC honors from the Associated Press and was the only SEC player to rank in the league's top 10 in tackles, interceptions, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. Butler was the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator at Minnesota from 2007-10 and coached against the Nittany Lions his last two seasons. He worked with Roof in 2008, helping the Golden Gophers improve from a 1-11 in 2007 to 7-5 and berth in the 2008 Insight Bowl. Butler also has coached at Harvard (2003-06), Texas State (2001-02) and Midwestern State (1999-2000) and was a graduate assistant at Texas in 1997 and '98 under John Mackovic and Mack Brown. He is a graduate of Catholic University, where he played football and basketball.