Easy (moped) Rider

IOWA CITY -- There was no map. There didn't seem to be any plan.

All Drew Ott wanted to do was get home. He didn't want to be a bother to his parents, Sheree and Dan, for a ride from Iowa City to Trumbull, Neb., a 400-mile and nearly six-hour ride in the car.

Ott didn't want to be a bother, but that's not the whole truth. The fact is he wanted to drive his moped across the state of Iowa and home to Nebraska.

"I liked driving ATVs when I was younger," said Ott, a sophomore defensive end for the Iowa Hawkeyes. "I didn't have a vehicle here and instead of making my parents drive all the way here, I just took my moped."

Ott's parents love him. They would've come and given him a ride.

"I'm sure they would've and I'm sure my mom would've preferred that," he said. "I just wanted to do this."

As far as ready-made metaphors to capture the Hawkeyes season, this will work.

Iowa (7-4, 4-3 Big Ten) will, however, take the charter to Lincoln, Neb., for today's regular-season finale against Nebraska (8-3, 5-2). After today's game, there will be the matter of a bowl game, which could climb as high as the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., or as low as the Texas Bowl in Houston.

(Iowa sports information put out a release Wednesday in regard to bowl tickets and listed the Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Phoenix, Ariz., Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., and the Texas Bowl as the possibilities. Iowa doesn't know and won't until sometime on Dec. 8, when BCS bowl bids are handed out.)

Again, Iowa will charter. Ott will gladly hop on the plane. Last summer, when he jumped on the moped and put on some safety goggles, he was looking for an adventure.

OK, maybe "adventure" is too strong of a word. Maybe peace of mind? Maybe a story to tell?

"There was this one little town that had 200 people in it," said Ott, a 6-4, 265-pounder who, in his first season as a starter, has 46 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, four quarterback hurries and 2.5 sacks. "Above the town, there was this giant mansion on top of a hill. That was pretty sweet. Can't remember the town, but it was between here and Des Moines."

Some facts about this epic voyage and travel tips in case you're interested in extended moped travel:

-- Trumbull is an hour and a half southwest of Lincoln and 403.9 miles from Iowa City on I-80.

-- We're talking about a moped, so you know it had to take backroads. This pushed the trip to more than 450 miles and nearly 12 hours.

-- Ott's moped can reach speeds of up to 50 or 55 mph. "I was fighting a really strong wind, so I only went about 43," he said. "That made it take a little longer."

-- If you're big into gas mileage, run out and buy a moped. Ott estimated the cost for gas at $16.

-- Don't try to hold it. You're going to need frequent bathroom breaks. Ott said he needed about eight.

-- If you go at the right time of the year, bugs won't be a terrible problem. Ott went in early summer, so the mosquitoes and what-not weren't yet buzzing. "I didn't get a lot of bugs in my eyes, I wore glasses," he said. "The bugs weren't quite out yet. I didn't catch too many bugs."

-- Wear sunscreen. "All I came out of it with was a sunburn and my hair was blown straight back," Ott said.

-- Pack a lunch. You're going to get hungry, it's a 12-hour ordeal. Ott headed west on Melrose Avenue at 9 a.m. and pulled into home around 9 p.m.

"It was a dusk-to-dawn type of a deal," he said.

-- Be aware of helmet laws. Ott didn't wear one in Iowa, where there is no law. In Nebraska, you wear a helmet or you get pulled over.

-- At one point, a semi-truck cattle pot passed Ott. You definitely want to avoid those.

"I was covered in cow feces, so that was a lot of fun, too," said Ott, who grew up on a farm between Trumbull and Giltner.

Ott rode Highway 14 to Lake Red Rock. "There was a mile-long bridge near the lake, that was really cool," he said. He took Highway 92 south of Des Moines and into Omaha. So, he would've gone past Winterset, the birthplace of John Wayne, and through Fontanelle, which is just a funny-sounding name for a town.

"There are a lot of hills in Iowa, that's different than Nebraska," he said.

Ott, who played five games as a true freshman last year, is a Nebraska country kid who never received a scholarship offer from the Huskers.

He went to Giltner High School, where he was named Nebraska's Gatorade player of the year despite the fact he played eight-man football. He helped Giltner post 41-6 record during his four seasons. He holds school records for season (211) and career tackles (626).

The Nebraska offer never came. This is a guy who had his mullet haircut shaped up last week by teammate and fellow defensive end Dominic Alvis. Now, it's really business in front and party rock in the back now. He also has a beard he's grown since February. He doesn't own a TV because he has no time for it.

"I didn't know about the beard and all that other stuff," linebacker Anthony Hitchens said. "He's a good kid. Don't judge a book by it's cover, he's a good kid, serious player."

From home this week, it's been all good luck wishes. Ott's expression didn't change much when asked about Nebraska. It's in there, somewhere deep inside.

"I don't think they looked at me too heavily, they looked at me a little bit, but I didn't get the offer, anyways," he said. "It gives me something to prove. I'll go in with a little extra motivation."

One day last summer, he had plenty of time to think about it.

And one epilogue here: Ott didn't moped-it back to Iowa City. He loaded it into the back of his truck for the return trip. The moped has 4,500 miles on it now and is still his main transit in Iowa City.

And, yes, he'll definitely be wearing a helmet. Probably not on the plane.