Inside The Huskies

In a Smooth Move, Huskies Offer SoCal Quarterback Named 'Butter'

Michael Tollefson has 16 schools pursuing him so far.
Dan Raley|
In a Smooth Move, Huskies Offer SoCal Quarterback Named 'Butter'
In a Smooth Move, Huskies Offer SoCal Quarterback Named 'Butter'

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Washington Huskies

Pass the butter. Better yet, butter up the passer.

As Kalen DeBoer's University of Washington recruiters sit around a table discussing prospects, and eating bland take-out food, this is a subject likely to come up in more ways than one.

On Wednesday, the Huskies offered a scholarship to Michael "Butter" Tollefson, a Class of 2025 quarterback from J Serra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, California — and a kid with a strong right arm and a nickname that alone will take him places.

Tollefson recently transferred into the same school that sent center Luke Wattenberg to the Huskies. Wattenberg, however, didn't come to Seattle with an unforgettable handle.

Butter.

Tollefson spreads it on smooth, ever since he was a baby, according to his mother.

"Butter, Butter, were the first lyrics of a song I used to sing to him while rocking him to sleep as a baby," Bridgette Tollefson told the website SoCoPrepSports.com. "Butter just stuck."

Otherwise, he's a sophomore who's played two seasons of Southern California varsity football as a freshman and sophomore and drawn a lot of attention. He has 16 schools that have offered him, among them Georgia, Florida State, Miami, Texas A&M, Tennessee and Oregon, besides the Huskies.

This past season as a 10th-grader for San Juan Hills High, Tollefson completed 146 of 270 passes for 1,567 yards and 8 touchdowns, with 5 interceptions, for an 4-8 team.

In 2021, he appeared in nine games as a freshman, starting six, and threw for 1,307 yards and 14 TDs, with three picks, and rushed for 449 yards and six scores for a 3-7 team.

Tollefson likely transferred looking for a better supporting cast to finish up his high school play. 

The pro-style passer carries a 4-star rating and doesn't appear to be leaning to any college program in particular. 

"I want to go to whichever school shows the most love to me and helps me become better at the next level," Tollefson told a recruiting analyst.

Just in case, Deboer's recruiters better be trying to find a wide receiver who answers to the nickname "Bread," which would make for an unforgettable passing combo.

Bread and Butter.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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