It can be tough to find Baton Rouge (La.) Southern Lab linebacker Larry Butler II at times. Butler has changed schools with his family a few times during his high school career and most recently, he has found himself in Baton Rouge. However, once you find the right football field, the physical linebacker doesn't take long to stick out.

Butler moved to Louisiana from Sacramento, Calif. in January and with spring practice already under his belt, fall practice has now kicked off and Butler is steadily getting used to the change in location and the change in football speed.

"It's been a pretty easy adjustment coming from the west coast to down south," Butler said. "I noticed that there's a change in the speed of the game but it's nothing overwhelming because I feel like I was head and shoulders above the competition in the west but down here it feels like the competition more suites me."

For Southern Lab, Butler will be lining up primarily at inside linebacker - his projected college position - after playing a variety of roles during the 2008 season.

"I was used at linebacker at the beginning of the season but more out of necessity than anything, I was moved to defensive end because I was real strong at the point of attack," he said. "I guess they wanted me to use my pass rushing skills to help out that way. I'm 100 percent middle linebacker this year. I'm going to try to show colleges what I can do and where I project on the next level."

Already, Butler has offers from Houston, Arkansas State, Texas Southern and New Mexico but a few bigger programs are starting to emerge for him.

"Today actually LSU called the school, Larry Porter specifically," he said. "He was talking to my coach about everything going on and I passed the Louisiana graduation exam so he was kind of excited about that. USC called today too and I don't know a lot about that conversation because I didn't talk to coach Roach but I think they wanted to see my transcripts."

Along with the offers that he already has, Butler feels that Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech are very close to pulling the trigger. At this point, the only school that has offered Butler that he has a serious interest in is the Houston Cougars.

"I just like the history that they have," he said of the program. "They have a Heisman trophy winner in Andre Ware and it's a good program and it's only four hours away from Baton Rouge now that I've made Baton Rouge home."

There are a few other programs that Butler would like to hear from that have yet to come on strong but have been in communication including LSU, USC, Tennessee, Florida State and Miami. What these programs will get in a Butler as a prospect is a physical, aggressive prospect who is not afraid of contact.

"My strength on the football field is stacking the point of attack," he said. "I like to feel I use my strength because I have a big build, I'm a solid tackler, I'm a big hitter. I try to hurt people. I'm a fearless hitter."

Larry's younger brother, Sean Butler is also expected to be a major college prospect and his presence alone on the football field helps Larry to push himself.

"Every day on the football field I try to compete with my brother," he said. "I know he's a great football player and I know if I'm a little bit better than him, I'm doing great."




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