Syracuse Football: Orange wideout Devin Butler sent to transfer portal

Syracuse football wide receiver Devin Butler will be transferring from the University, per Brett McMurphy. Here’s all the latest information.

The Syracuse football team has a recent history of developing wide receivers and maximizing them to reach their full potential. That list won’t include Devin Butler who will be transferring from the program, per College Football Insider Brett McMurphy of WatchStadium.

Butler had started 14 games over the last two seasons for the Orange. A bigger target at 6-foot-3 and weighing 196 pounds, his hometown is District Heights, Md.

During his three seasons at Syracuse he totaled 49 receptions for 467 yards and one touchdown. Obviously he never reached his full potential and will now seek opportunities outside of Syracuse to continue his collegiate career.

It’s certainly a disappointing end to his Orange career. He was able to get on the field as a freshman before eventually missing the last six games of the season due to injury.

In his sophomore year (2017), he got a huge uptick in playing time. Butler played in all 12 games and started 9 for the Orange. He placed third on the team in receptions and yards and really seemed like he was a leading favorite to replace the production of Amba Etta-Tawo and Steve Ishmael, but obviously that just never materialized.

Now he will enter the transfer portal and look for his next team.

Although a lot of college football fans may be puzzled with the recent update in the lingo: Butler will be entering the “transfer portal”. Are we still talking about college football or perhaps Star Wars?

247 Sports provided some additional information on what all this means and where it came from:

"“Beginning in October, Division I student-athletes will have the ability to transfer to a different school and receive a scholarship without asking their current school for permission,” the NCAA announced in July. “The Division I Council adopted a proposal this week that creates a new ‘notification-of-transfer’ model. This new system allows a student to inform his or her current school of a desire to transfer, then requires that school to enter the student’s name into a national transfer database within two business days. Once the student-athlete’s name is in the database, other coaches are free to contact that individual … ”“The previous transfer rule, which required student-athletes to get permission from their current school to contact another school before they can receive a scholarship after transfer, was intended to discourage coaches from recruiting student-athletes from other Division I schools. The rule change ends the controversial practice in which some coaches or administrators would prevent students from having contact with specific schools.”"

So now that Butler is intending on transferring, Syracuse must now enter his information into the transfer portal for other colleges to now evaluate whether or not they’re interested. This news shouldn’t be terribly surprising though, he was supposed to be a guy who had a major impact on program and it didn’t happen and he lost his spot.

With Syracuse returning all of their major contributors at the wide receiver position (outside of Jamal Custis), even if Butler returned, his opportunities would’ve been few and far between.

It’s sad that things didn’t work out for Devin here on the hill, but Orange Nation is wishing him all the best in his future endeavors and hopefully he can land on his feet and find some great success.