Making it to the NFL as a college football player is tough. Extremely tough.

To get to the professional level, athletes must not only perform at a high level on the gridiron during their college career but often they also have to impress at things like the NFL Combine and pro day workouts. And then, when all of the physical work is done, they must also answer endless questions from reporters and pro team administrators to make sure they have the right character to have football be their full-time job.

All of this can be overwhelming and even small missteps can ruin a player’s chances of making it to the big time. But one Tennessee football player seems to be taking it all in stride.

Vols defensive lineman Matthew Butler is currently taking his shot at the NFL. His senior season in Knoxville was strong with 47 tackles including 8.5 tackles for loss. Butler also made it through the Combine and his current prospect gradeaccording to NFL.comis 6.20, which projects that he will “eventually be (an) average starter.”

All of this is encouraging but Butler will do even more work in front of scouts at Tennessee’s pro day on March 30th. As a part of UT’s pro day, the player participants spoke to media on Tuesday and Butler was asked if he had any regrets from his time in college.

Check out his answer…

Matthew Butler (@mattbutler_45) full-time football player…part-time philosopher. #Vols pic.twitter.com/pCDaX0DZp8

— Reece Van Haaften (@Reece_VH) March 29, 2022

“God’s plan is the one that I’m walking in. There’s going to be hills and there’s going to be valleys. And depending on how you look at it, the hill might be better than the valley, the valley might be better than the hill. So I mean, I’m just going to walk this walk until I get where I’m going.”

Matthew seems to be wise beyond his years because, frankly, those are words to live by. I truly hope that Matthew gets to where he’s going.

Featured image via Reece Van Haaften on Twitter and Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel