Surrounded by reporters in Beaver Stadium's media room, Deon Butler kept looking down at his phone. Congratulatory calls and texts kept coming in, but the one Butler was really waiting for was from an unknown number.

The man Butler was waiting to hear from was the man he had just surpassed in the Penn State record books, Bobby Engram.

"I keep on looking down to see if one of them is an unknown number to see if it's that Bobby Engram guy, but not yet, not yet," Butler said jokingly. "It's just people I know like my mom. I don't want to answer that right now."

Butler's first catch against Indiana, which came with a little more than six minutes to play in the first quarter, moved him past Engram for first place on Penn State's career receptions list. Butler caught four more balls against the Hoosiers, including one for a touchdown, and now sits with 172 career grabs. Engram's old record was 167.

Butler's record-breaking catch, like his arrival at Penn State, went by without much fanfare. But Butler said that was fine, he didn't want a big celebration during the game. It's not his style he said.

"It was so early in the game. It's tough to make a big ceremony out of that because you gotta tough football game ahead of us," Butler said. "I'm glad we kept moving from there, but now after the game everyone's talking about it and that's a good feeling."

Butler came to Penn State four years ago as a walk-on defensive back. But even though he had offers from smaller schools, his mother, Valerie, said the decision was entirely Deon's and he wanted to prove he could play at the highest level of college football.

She said she just told Deon to "spread his wings and make it happen."

And 172 catches, 2,541 yards and 19 touchdowns later, Butler has made

it happen time and again. He's led the Lions in receiving yards every season in Happy Valley, but his impact on the program goes beyond the field, quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno said.

"He is everything that Penn State is about," Paterno said. "People talk about Penn State kids, he's your poster child, he's a great student, great person, great leader. He is what Penn State is all about. When he comes out of the tunnel next week there will be a few tears."

As the reporters cleared out, Butler's mother grabbed a mic and asked him "how great his parents are."

Butler just laughed and smiled, saying, "My dad's great, my mom's all right."

Celebrating with her could wait a couple of minutes, besides, he was still waiting on that call.

One day it might be Butler on the other end of that line, congratulating some future Penn State receiver for breaking his record. Not bad for a former walk-on.

While most schools looked at his height and weight and determined Butler was too small, they neglected to measure his determination and work ethic, which Butler said has led to most of his success.

"I remember going back to my redshirt year and every day I was practicing real hard," Butler said. "Some days guys would be going light and I would be that guy that you hated because I was going 100 percent. I wanted to get better every day. I didn't have the luxury of having a scholarship. I felt like I had to go and earn it."