Stampeding Through the 2025 USF Football Roster: #91 DT Dre Butler

PLAYER: Dre Butler

POSITION: Defensive tackle

YEAR: Redshirt senior

HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6'5", 280 lbs.

HOW DID HE GET HERE? Buckle up. Butler was part of the high school class of 2018 at Newton High School in Covington, Georgia, about a half hour or so east of Atlanta. He committed to FCS program Chattanooga, but ended up enrolling at Independence Community College in Kansas instead. Butler blew up at ICC and made it on the radar of a handful of big-time programs in 2020, getting ranked as high as number one (!) among JUCO prospects and eventually committing to Auburn. He played in nine games at Auburn in 2020, making one start and totaling 14 tackles, but his playing time slipped in 2021. He transferred to Liberty in 2022, where he played in all 13 games for the Flames, then transferred to Michigan State for the 2023 season, where an injury limited him to just three games. He spent the 2024 season at AAC foe Charlotte - which we’ll discuss below - before entering the transfer portal again in the winter and signing with the Bulls in February.

You may be wondering how in the world Butler still has NCAA eligibility. As best I can tell, it breaks down like this:

• 2019: Independence Community College. As part of the Diego Pavia case, the NCAA granted a waiver to former junior college players such that a season of their junior college years doesn’t count towards their NCAA eligibility (this is how Jhalyn Shuler, among others, was able to return this year). The ruling may be short-lived, since the NCAA is appealing, but it stands for 2025. Thus, the 2019 season doesn’t count towards Butler’s eligibility.
• 2020: Auburn. This was, of course, the COVID season. Butler played a good bit this season, but the 2020 season didn’t count towards anyone’s eligibility.
• 2021: Auburn. Butler played in only four games this season, so he was able to take a redshirt year.
• 2022: Liberty. This is Butler’s fourth year of college ball, but he is still a freshman in eligibility terms!
• 2023: Michigan State. This was Butler’s sophomore season.*
• 2024: Charlotte. This was his junior season.

HOW WAS HIS 2024 SEASON? Probably the most productive of his FBS career. Butler played in 11 of Charlotte’s 12 games, starting a career-high six. He was a key piece of the rotation at defensive tackle, making 30 tackles along with five TFLs and two sacks. The Niners rotated quite a bit on the defensive line in 2024, but it seems like Butler generally impressed in his one season there, particularly in an early-season battle against UNC, where he had four tackles, 2.5 TFLs and a sack. And yes, he did play against USF - he politely limited his stat line to just two tackles in the Bulls’ win.

WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2025? As we’ve mentioned, the Bulls lost their three biggest pieces on the interior of the line from 2024 (Doug Blue-Eli, Bernard Gooden, and Decarius Hawthorne). The best way to replace proven AAC defensive tackles? Simply bring in other proven AAC defensive tackles. Butler is a very interesting addition at a position of need for USF. His size makes him a logical option at nose tackle, and that’s where I’d expect him to play, but it should be noted that he’s pretty versatile. Per Pro Football Focus, he played 69% of his defensive snaps in 2024 in the interior - a majority, but not an overwhelming one - and he’s clearly got some pass rushing abilities, so it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Bulls rotate him across the line the way they did with Hawthorne last season.

At any rate, Butler is tremendously experienced and has already shown he can perform adequately at this level of competition. With the number of new linemen USF brought in this offseason, you get the impression that they’re going to rotate pretty heavily, so they don’t necessarily need Butler to be The Guy. That said, the 26-year-old grad transfer is probably going to be one of the first names up when it comes to filling Blue-Eli’s considerable shoes at nose tackle. How he performs will go a long way towards determining the success of the USF defense as a whole.

*I should note that there are reports stating that Butler missed the final nine games of his 2023 season at MSU with an injury… which would, theoretically, make him eligible for a medical redshirt… which could, hypothetically, make him eligible for a seventh season in 2026.