Hlas: McNutt goes nuts, in the best way

IOWA CITY - It was several minutes after Iowa's 45-24 football win over Indiana had ended, but a family lingered in the Kinnick Stadium grandstand Saturday afternoon and soaked in every last moment of a day it will long treasure.

“We enjoy it up here,” said Anita McNutt, the mother of the Hawkeyes' Marvin McNutt.

The Highway of the Saints has seen a lot of the McNutt family the last few years. Anita and husband Marvin, their other children, and assorted other relatives and friends, have enjoyed driving up from their St. Louis home to watch the Hawkeyes' Marvin do a lot of big things as a wide receiver.

But Saturday was something else. McNutt had his first three-touchdown game. He had a personal-best 184 receiving yards, 30.7 per catch

And, he broke the Iowa record for career TD catches with No. 22, an 80-yarder that was followed by No. 23 and No. 24 before the first-half was done.

Spend five minutes around McNutt's parents, and you feel the love, the pride, and not much tolerance for failing to work hard or stay modest.

“I had two drops,” McNutt said after the game. “I didn't have a complete game.”

That, more than owning a school record, is what he'll remember this in the short term.

“There are things I did that will be good on the film,” he said, “and there will be things I need to clean up.”

In other words, McNutt won't be taking out any ads today advertising himself as Iowa's new all-time leader in touchdown catches.

After Anita told me how proud she was of her son, I asked her how she and her husband got young Marvin to stay grounded.

“I beat him,” she said. That gave the family around her a good laugh.

“You know I'm going to write that,” I told her.

“You know I don't care,” she shot back.

When I recounted his mom's statement, McNutt's laugh and merry expression suggested he came from a home every kid should be as lucky to know.

But he was serious when he said “My parents are old-school and I appreciated it.

“I'm grateful to have a family like that. They taught me to never quit, to always respect everyone, and to stay humble.”

“We put God first, and everything else will follow,” Anita said in a more serious moment herself. “My husband and I were both raised like that.”

McNutt's switch from quarterback to wide receiver in midseason three years ago is well-documented, as it should be. To move to a totally new position and become so adept at it at this level makes the senior one of Iowa's all-time great individual football stories.

But you know there had to be times in 2008 when McNutt was on the phone home to his parents wondering if this was right for him. He was a quarterback. He came to Iowa to play quarterback, to play big-school quarterback. He was asked to move to receiver.

It's the same thing Iowa's A.J. Derby faced recently when he was switched from quarterback to linebacker. Quarterbacks don't want to be something else. Generals never ask for demotions.

But you can lead from other positions, too.

“He's a great leader,” Hawkeye offensive guard Matt Tobin said. “Everybody looks up to him.”

“It's just an honor to play with him,” said James Vandenberg, who has thrown eight TD passes to McNutt in seven games this season.

“Everybody kind of feeds off him and we know he can always bail us out. He's a nightmare to guard one-on-one for anybody.”

McNutt could easily have been one an NFL player right now. But he chose last winter to stay in school. Unless you're Andrew Luck, a big part of that decision is always when a player thinks his best financial move is to play another year in college and raise his NFL draft profile.

This player has done that, probably going to second- or third-round territory in 2012 when he likely wouldn't have been selected that early last April.

But McNutt also seems like someone who wanted to see this college thing through. Wow, is he ever doing that.

Now, it's just a matter of getting drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers next April.

“He played for the Hazelwood Central Hawks, and they wear black and gold,” Anita said. “He's always been black and gold. So I guess he has to go to Pittsburgh.”

Meanwhile, she and her family had to return to St. Louis Saturday night. Her 13-year-old son, Mason, has a football game this morning. He is a quarterback. For now, anyway.

In a parking ramp across the street from Kinnick Saturday, a Hawkeye fan and his son of maybe Mason's age chatted up Marvin McNutt Sr., over two hours before kickoff.

“He's going to break the record today,” the dad said.

“I hope so,” McNutt replied.

“Number 22,” added the boy.

Yep. And that was just the start.