The MTSU offense faced a third and 10. Trailing 7-0 after fumbling on the game’s first drive, the Blue Raiders looked to move the chains on the second possession of the 2020 season opener at Army.
Long snapper Brody Butler waited on the bench, helmet in hand, hardly able to breathe and praying for the offense to convert.
From the shotgun, quarterback Asher O’Hara took the snap and rifled a pass to the right side of the field, but a Black Knights defender batted the ball away. O’Hara’s incompletion brought up fourth and 10 and the true freshman long snapper jogged onto the field for the first time.
Like in high school countless times before, Butler hiked a perfect spiral. Punter Kyle Ulbrich promptly booted the ball 57 yards and out of bounds at the Army 15-yard line.
“As soon as the ball left my hands, it was just like everything was lifted off of me,” Butler said. “I could breathe again.”
With his first collegiate snap literally behind him, and the tension in his chest eased, Butler settled in as MTSU’s starting long snapper for the next five seasons. In 59 games, Butler never missed a start and converted on 546 out of 548 career snaps.
His half decade of consistency earned him an All-Freshman Conference USA selection and three straight First Team All-CUSA honors in his final three college seasons.
It’s also given him a shot at the NFL.
For the 23-year-old out of Homewood, Alabama, going pro wasn’t always the goal. In fact, he didn’t even want to go to college. Like many high schoolers, Butler didn’t have his life planned. But, after his sophomore year at Homewood High School, he committed to perfecting his craft.
“I had to have one of the most stressful conversations with myself, to realize if I wanted it as badly as I did,” Butler said. “I just decided to start swinging for it.”
Once he started “swinging for it,” playing in the NFL quickly became a dream. When the 2025 NFL Draft begins and the ensuing undrafted free agency period opens this weekend, Butler will wait patiently, hoping to receive the call that turns his dream into a reality.
But for Butler, a different phone call provided him with the chance to chase his dreams in the first place.
A month before national signing day in 2019, Butler narrowed down his future to two offers. He visited MTSU in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, before driving to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to tour the University of Arkansas the next day.
The decision forced Butler to choose between living out every young man’s dream of playing in the SEC as a Razorback or getting an early chance at playing time as a Blue Raider.
Ultimately, Butler picked MTSU over the SEC and immediately competed, all but securing the starting long snapping job before the season opener. Yet even after starting all nine games in a COVID-19 shortened season, Butler didn’t know if he’d be back in the spring semester.
Coming to Middle Tennessee as a walk-on, the Homewood High School graduate paid the full $28,000 out-of-state tuition. For MTSU to remain a feasible option for him and his family long term, Butler needed a scholarship. With a limited number available, he wasn’t sure he’d get one. Even after a positive exiting meeting with then head coach Rick Stockstill, Butler still felt uncertain.
“College is a business,” Butler said. “Sometimes coaches are going to tell you what you want to hear even if it’s not the exact truth … and I didn’t have a relationship with Stock [Stockstill] at this point. I’d been here [MTSU] for three months, four months. I liked the guy, he’s a great guy, but I’d just never had any type of built-in relationship with him yet. I didn’t know if I needed to trust him — if I could trust him.”
Butler cleaned out his Scarlett Commons dorm after the exit meeting. He packed up everything except the dorm-issued furniture to bring back to Alabama. Two weeks of silence followed, he said.
In that time, Butler weighed his options, likely heading to a school with cheaper tuition and a chance to start from scratch and earn a scholarship. On Dec. 22, 2020, two days before the transfer portal opened, CUSA announced all conference selections, with Butler making the All-Freshman team.
Less than an hour later, Butler received an early Christmas present — the call from Stockstill that kept him in Murfreesboro for four more seasons.
“Getting a scholarship as a long snapper is already a difficult task,” Butler said. “It’s not the most common thing … So, as a freshman to get put on scholarship, once I found that out, there was no question that [I was] staying.”
Although Butler didn’t fully trust Stockstill before receiving his scholarship, they grew close over the next three seasons. The pair still talks at least once a month, Butler said.
“He really was like a father figure to me in a way,” Butler said. “You know the ‘home away from home’ type of deal. He allowed me to live out a lot of kid’s dreams by putting me on scholarship. He enabled that for me, he trusted in me. Not very many coaches have it in them to put a true freshman to come in and start games. That doesn’t happen.”
Although Stockstill wasn’t MTSU’s head coach for Butler’s final college season, he watched from afar — pulling for him just like he was there.
“I tell all of our players when they get to school that we are going to have a relationship that is going to last a lifetime,” Stockstill said. “It is a relationship that I take personally in every aspect of their life, not just on the football field.”
While Stockstill served as a father figure for Butler during his MTSU tenure, his strongest support throughout his journey has come from his family. His countless hours spent training are only matched by the commitment of his parents, Scott and Celeste Butler.
Scott Butler was a walk-on at Auburn University. He worked multiple jobs just to keep his dream of playing football alive, but it never dressed out.
“I went to a Power-5 school and really just floundered,” Scott Butler said. “I didn’t make any strides, I didn’t start, I didn’t get anywhere. No matter where they [his sons] started, I wanted them to be able to live a life that I didn’t live, and to just be able to have success.”
With his own playing career as a reminder, Scott Butler knew that for his kids to succeed at the next level, sticking to the outer suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, wouldn’t cut it. Over the years, he’s driven his son Brody Butler to snapping camps across the country and now does the same with his youngest son, Hardy Butler.
From camps as nearby as Athens, Georgia, to as far away as Phoenix, Arizona, Scott Butler never shied away from an opportunity for scouts to notice his kids.
“If the child wants to go there, he will drive the eight hours there and he will drive the eight hours back, and he will do it in one day if he has to,” Celeste Butler said. “He put miles and miles and miles on cars when Brody was going through.”
Even after Brody Butler secured a scholarship at Middle Tennessee, his parents’ commitment didn’t let up. While CUSA’s midweek October schedule made travel tough for the entire family, Scott Butler never missed one of Brody Butler’s 59 games.
Regardless of what or how long it takes, Brody Butler’s parents will be with him for the long haul.
“As a parent, you’ve got to do what it takes to allow your child to reach dreams,” Scott Butler said. “If it makes me work more years instead of retiring, that’s okay.”
If anyone understands what it takes to reach that dream, it’s Brody Butler’s trainer Matt Overton. As an undrafted free agent, Overton bounced around minicamps and stints in spring leagues for six years before securing a roster spot with the Indianapolis Colts in 2012.
The 13-year NFL veteran has lived the journeyman lifestyle, spending time with nine different NFL teams, most recently the Miami Dolphins in 2024. Overton began consistently coaching young long snappers after moving to Nashville in 2020 but really bought into coaching life over the last year, he said.
Overton’s testimony to everyone he coaches, from young kids to prospective NFL players like Brody Butler, is that there’s no direct path to reaching their dreams.
“When it comes to long snapping there’s only 32 jobs in the world,” Overton said. “Out of those 32 there’s maybe a third of the league that’s actually going to bring guys in for a look, and out of that third it’s only two to three legitimate opportunities to compete for a job.”
As a trainer, Overton prepares his pupils to compete for those “two to three” jobs, and Brody Butler certainly has what it takes to get there, from his on-field accomplishments to his mental fortitude, he said.
“Brody is all-in,” Overton said. “He’s been all-in since the day he committed to MTSU. He’s one of those guys that kind of carries a chip on his shoulder a little bit. Whether that’s from being overlooked in recruiting back in high school or whatever the case may be, he solidified himself at MTSU and had a stellar career. I think he’s out to prove himself, that he belongs with the big dogs.”
Amidst Brody Butler continuing to prove himself, he’s continued to impress special teams’ coaches in the league. Following a perfect outing at his MTSU Pro Day, Brody Butler received an invite to the Tennessee Titans Local Pro Day, earning another chance to perform in front of NFL scouts.
Brody Butler certainly won’t be on stage holding a jersey on draft night and might not receive calls from teams for weeks or months, but as someone connected to the NFL told him, it’s not if he gets a shot, it’s when.
Until and even after that call comes, Brody Butler will do what he’s always done, and what his position requires; keep his head down, and keep working.
Lead photo illustration by Brett Walker. Images courtesy of the Butler family.
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