The departure of Nevada running back James Butler, while a major loss, was not wholly unexpected. The senior had scrubbed his social media pages from references to the Wolf Pack and photos of him in a Nevada uniform in recent weeks while posting or retweeting passages about avoiding familiarity and being open to change.
There were enough there for me to call Nevada's first-year coach, Jay Norvell, on Monday about a potential Butler transfer. Norvell said Butler had talked about transferring closer to home, which was not unusual for him from previous offseasons, but the Wolf Pack was expecting him to return for his senior season.