(Editor's Note: Levell Coppage shakes off a would-be defender on his way to a record-breaking 46 yard run in Saturday's 31-16 win over UW-Stevens Point at Perkins Stadium - photo is courtesy of Jeff Seisser, Daily Jefferson County Union)
It was the most publicized number last week heading into Saturday’s UW-Stevens Point at UW-Whitewater football game at Perkins Stadium. Levell Coppage needed 54 yards to eclipse Justin Beaver’s 6,584 career rushing total to become the UW-Whitewater and WIAC’s career rushing leader.
"Coming into this game everyone was telling me 54 yards, 54 yards. That's all I was hearing for the past couple days. In my head, I was thinking why 54? Why just get 54, I'm just playing another game out here,"
It didn’t take the senior out of Oak Park-River Forest High School (Ill) to break the record.
Coppage gained three yards on his first run of the day. On the next play Levell ripped off a 47 yard touchdown run to pull within four yards of the record. Coppage opened UWW’s second possession of the day with a two-yard run. Needing just two yards for the record, Coppage showed his “flair for the dramatic” by busting a 46 yard burst to the UWSP 17 yard line to become the UWW and WIAC career rushing leader.
Coppage, with 245 yards on 29 carries against the Pointers, has rushed for 1,101 yards this season, the first back in UW-W and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference history to rush for 1,000 yards all four years of his career. It also gives him 6,776 yards in his career, replacing former Warhawk Justin Beaver as the school and WIAC career rushing leader. And it moves Coppage into third place in the NCAA III record book for career rushing.
His 245 yards vs. Stevens Point was his season high, topping the 168 he gained against UW-Platteville, and marks the sixth time in his career he has rushed for at least 200 yards. His most recent 200+ game had been a 299 yard performance in the 2010 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
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