Sudden Death: UConn Football's 2009-2010 Improbable Odyssey

For the UConn football team, the 2009 season offered the usual share of blood and sweat –  but way, way too many tears.

Chronicling the tumultuous 2009-2010 seasons, the book focuses on emotional hardships on and off the field – including a beloved teammate's burial, heartbreaking last-minute losses, heartwarming redemption sagas, an historic victory at historic Notre Dame, police investigations, a national award for courageousness, an improbable appearance in a top-tier bowl game and a New Year's Day surprise on national TV- culminating with the head coach deserting his team on a desert tarmac without so much as a "See ya, guys."

This book is dedicated to a fine young man, Jasper "Jazz" Howard,  an NFL prospect who'd escaped his Miami community's mayhem only to be murdered on a serene street in Storrs in the shadow of the larger-than-life statue of the school mascot during Homecoming weekend.

The night before, Jazz and his expectant fiancée had finally chosen their baby's name; sadly, by sunrise this infant-in-the-womb would now have a name.…but would no longer have a father to call her by it.