It's Not Plagiarism If You Watch It Wants Its Canal Back, Too

It's Not Plagiarism If You Link To It is BHGP's regular news roundup. Send all tips to any of the email addresses at the bottom of the page. BEAT MEXICO.

Aim high.  Seven-on-seven drills are underway and they include the return of a certain star receiver.  A certain star receiver who has his sights set on a very big season.

 Then, he’s reminded the records might take some time and that Derrell Johnson-Koulianos’ receptions (173) and yardage (2,616) are way out there.

"Oh yeah," McNutt said and then laughs. He’s told that it would take an unprecedented season in Iowa football history as a receiver to catch Johnson-Koulianos.

He smiles and eyeballs the cameras mischievously. The look says it all. 

"Unprecedented" is putting it mildly in this case; McNutt needs 86 receptions and 1071 yards to top the records set by DJK just last season.  86 receptions would be four more catches than any Iowa receiver has ever had in a season (after Kevin Kasper's 82 in 2000), while 1071 yards would be both a school record in itself (old record: 1037 by Keith Chappelle in 1980) and just the fourth 1000-yard season in school history (joining Chappelle's '80 season, Quinn Early's 1987 season, and Kasper's 2000 season).  And none of that even touches upon the fact that with an experienced offensive line paving the way for a bruising, talented running back (and a somewhat inexperienced quarterback calling the shots), Iowa's far more likely to lean on the run in 2011.  But, hey, it never hurts to dream big, Marvin.

And if McNutt attracts too much attention from opposing defenses?

"What if they triple-team me? Then Keenan Davis should definitely be open," McNutt said of the former Cedar Rapids Washington star.

Well that's certainly true.

Those responsible have been sacked.  Updating the Stanzi piece from the previous INP, one of our intrepid readers (o-lineu) emailed ESPN's Bill Williamson to inquire about the controversial statement.  Williamson's response?

Wow, thanks for that. That was a simple, but bad mistake made in the ediitng process. It was the socut [sic] who said it not Stanzi. It has been fixed.
 
BW.

Well then.  Score one for lazy writing and bad copyediting.  We can rest easy: Stanzi didn't throw his supporting cast under a large motorized vehicle of any sort.  Case closed.

As the ears cauliflower... It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a media analyst) to guess that the highest-rated sports on BTN were football and men's basketball.  But can you guess what the third highest-rated sport was?  Women's basketball?  BZZ.  Hockey?  BZZ.  Wrestling?  DING-DING-DING.  And that's with the majority of events being tape-delayed and often aired at odd times.  Hopefully BTN keeps those figures in mind when setting the 2011-2012 television schedule.

In other college grappling news, the National Duals tournament is a-changin'.

The changes will eventually include 24 teams, consisting of 11 conference dual champions and 13 at-large bids. Those teams will be divided into four regional meets with the champions advancing to a final four group to determine a national champion. Regional meets are set for Sunday, Feb. 12 with the final four, likely hosted by one of the competing teams, scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 19.

In the short term, these changes seem designed to wreak havoc with dual meet schedules.  In the long term, though, the changes seem like a great way to boost the prestige and quality of the tournament.  Dual meets are an enormous part of collegiate wrestling and the current system undervalues them; the changes to the National Duals tourney could go a long way in fixing that and giving us another means of determining which team really is the best team in the nation (it may or may not be the same team that wins the team title at the current NCAA Tournament).

You've been Brommer'd.  You may not have noticed it, but one returning Iowa player has been noticeably absent from Horace's excellent Prime Time League recaps so far: Andrew Brommer.  The Brommernator has been rehabbing from minor knee surgery and should find it out soon whether or not he'll be able to participate in any of this summer's PTL action.  In the meantime, he's looking ahead to his senior (how time flies!) season: 

 Brommer, a Rosemount, Minn., native, said his effort against Sullinger and Ohio State gives him confidence he can compete each night against the league’s premier centers.

"I see that I can do that against the top talent in the NCAA, so why can’t I do that against everybody?" Brommer said. "I just take that as motivation, and I run with it." 

Nothing like the power of positive thinking, I suppose.  Asking Brommer to suddenly regularly produce stat lines on par with that OSU game (12 points, 6 rebounds) is probably a step too far for Brommer.  The thing is, Iowa may not even need that sort of production (only seven Big Ten players averaged at least a 12-6 last year) out of Brommer.  In 2010 he doubled his scoring and rebounding totals (to 3.1 ppg and 2.4 rpg); if he can do slightly better than that again, he'd be posting numbers in the same ballpark as Jarryd Cole last year (8.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg).  Iowa's success next year isn't going to hinge on Brommer suddenly transforming into an All-Big Ten post player -- but they do need a general level of competence out of the position.

MY HUCKLEBERRYZ

* Parking around Kinnick is going to be even more of a pain in the ass in 2011.

* My biggest takeaway from this article?  Of course Norm drives a Caddy.

* ESPN's Big Ten Blog ranks the league's best quarterbacks (Vandenberg checks in at 6th, behind all of last year's starters except the Purdue and Penn State combo platters), running backs (Coker checks in at 6th, too, behind a quintet of more experienced backs), and wide receivers (McNutt places 3rd).

* Mike Hlas remembers a time when The Des Moines Register was great... sadly, that time was long ago, when the Big Peach ruled Sundays and Gannett hadn't yet turned the paper into a pale shadow of its former glory.

* Jim Delany wants to tweak the College World Series format to give more opportunities to northern schools; southern schools are, unsurprisingly, not particularly supportive.  FUN FACT: No Big Ten team has made the College World Series since Michigan in 1984.

* Mark Cuban's lawyer files one of the greatest briefs ever.