Michigan football lands kicker from Pittsburgh in transfer portal

4 days ago 2

Michigan football appears to have found Dominic Zvada's replacement.

Trey Butkowski, who just finished his freshman season at Pittsburgh, has committed to join the Wolverines, program spokesman Dave Ablauf confirmed to the Free Press.

He comes with his long snapper, Nico Crawford, who also just joined the program after one year at Pitt, though he is a graduate student.

Butkowski was a freshman All-American after winning the job out of fall camp. The Lake Nona, Florida, native was also named second-team All-ACC despite joining the team last year as a walk-on. He converted converting 20 of 23 field goals (87.0%) and was 43-for-44 on extra points.

Kohl’s Kicking rated Butkowski as the No. 9 kicker in the class of 2025 and a five-star player entering the program.

Butkowski's range was somewhat limited in Year 1 – he didn't attempt a single 50-yarder – but he was quite consistent, which included a program-record 16 consecutive made field goals. His career long was a 47-yarder against Boston College and he made all 14 tries from inside of 40 yards.

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He was named a Lou Groza Award semifinalist, the award for best kicker in the nation, which Zvada was a finalist for in 2024 and Jake Moody won in 2021. Zvada has since declared for the NFL draft while Beckham Sunderland, who handled kickoffs for the Wolverines last season, recently transferred to Minnesota.

Zvada left Ann Arbor hitting 38 of 47 field goals (eight of those misses came in 2025) but was a remarkable 9-for-10 on kicks from 50-plus yards out, setting the record for 50-yarders in a season and a career for Michigan.

U-M is remaking its special teams room under Kerry Coombs. The Wolverines also landed punter Cameron Brown from UNLV earlier in the week in addition to Butkowski and Crawford.

Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football lands kicker from Pittsburgh in transfer portal

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