Note to people who like to ride mopeds: Man, be careful. Iowa offensive lineman Josh Koeppel was zooming around campus on said vehicle Monday morning when he was hit head-on by a pickup truck, an accident which was caught by the dashboard camera of a police cruiser. Miraculously, Koeppel escaped serious injury, emerging with only bumps and bruises (Ta daa!). He was treated and released from the hospital with “a variety of bumps, bruises and cuts but nothing more.”
Koeppel had been battling for the starting center job with head coach Kirk Ferentz’s son, James, but the coach said Tuesday at his weekly news conference that he doubts Koeppel will be in uniform Saturday when the Hawkeyes open the season against Eastern Illinois. From the Quad City Times:
“The most important thing is he’s healthy and ready to go and that’s a big thing,” Ferentz said. “Could have been a lot worse, certainly.”
A vast majority of Iowa’s football players get around town on two wheels but Ferentz said he’s never been wild about the idea.
“I’ve been worried about this for 11 years … on a couple of fronts,” he said. “No. 1, very few of them wear helmets, and the other thing is they’re just not very protected.”
He would love to ban all his players from riding scooters and mopeds, just as he has prohibited them from certain forms of social networking activities. But he knows that’s not realistic.
Thanks to SportsbyBrooks for obtaining the video.
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Hawkeyes coach says Koeppel likely won’t play [Quad City Times]
