Marvin McNutt isn't among the top 10 college wide receivers?

Nov. 14, 2011 1:39 pm

Marvin McNutt isn't among the top 10 college wide receivers?

Someone call Fred Biletnikoff and tell him they left somebody off his list.

This may sound like provincial pandering, but I don't care. I have 10 games of eyewitnessing evidence to support my belief that Iowa's Marvin McNutt not being on the Biletnikoff Award semifinalist list seems like an omission.

I have no idea how you would rank wide receivers across America, but for McNutt not to be listed among the nation's 10 best tells me that whoever came up with the list of semifinalists hasn't seen McNutt play. May I suggest they start here:

Now, I'm not going to degrade any of the 10 semifinalists because, without having seen four or five of them, I'm still quite certain they're all brilliant players. But if all 10 have had better seasons than McNutt, I'll change my name to Mike Biletnikoff.

One of the 10 is Oklahoma's Ryan Broyles, who had a sensational first nine games. He had 83 catches, 1,157 yards, 10 touchdowns. But he tore an ACL in that ninth game, and is done for the season. Monday, he had this Twitter response to being named a Biletnikoff semifinalist:

@RyanBroyles Wow, ok.. I'm suiting up this weekend

He was joking. Sarcastically, it would appear.

A.J. Jenkins of Illinois has had a wonderful season. I do not want to put down anyone who is one of his sport's best at his position. But he has just one 100-yard game in his last four outings, and had a mere 43 receiving yards against Penn State on Oct. 29.

McNutt has four consecutive 100-yard games, with the last two against ranked teams in Michigan and Michigan State.

I don't know how you compare McNutt to someone in a pass-to-set-up-the-pass offense like Houston's Patrick Edwards or Western Michigan's Jordan White. If you're looking just at numbers of catches instead of plays of impact, OK, take Edwards or White.

Hey, if Iowa is 8-2 instead of 6-4, McNutt's probably on the list of semifinalists. Except that Keenan Allen, with numbers very similar to McNutt's, is on a 5-5 California team. And Jenkins' Illini are 6-4. And Western Michigan is 5-5.

It's an odd omission. It isn't like some of McNutt's many big plays haven't been seen on SportsCenter.

Well, they say the best revenge is living well. If McNutt has two more excellent games, he might get some All-America mention to go with his certain All-Big Ten accolades to come.

A faithful Hlog reader (@ryanvogt27) e-mailed the Biletnikoff committee, and here is an important comment that was part of the reply from the chair of the award's voting and selection committee:

All receivers still have a chance to be included this year- as we allow write in votes until we pick a winner. A few years ago we had a receiver come on late in a couple of TV games and ended up winning our award.

We have around 150 voters scattered around the country, we look to balance voters by area and by conference.

I think Blackmon wins this thing going away, anyhow. He's had the numbers and the impact all season long.

[naviga:h3 align="center"]Bowl Subdivision (FBS) National Player Report

Receiving Yards Per Game

Year: 2011

Thru: 11/12/11 Minimum Pct. of Games Played 75

Rank

Player

Pos

Catches

Yds

TDs