Randy Edsall on Jasper Howard Death: There’s Nothing in the Manual for This

It’s hard to have heard the story about UCONN CB Jasper Howard getting killed Sunday morning and not feel for his family, the team, and the school. It doesn’t matter what school you support, this sort of news hits home with anyone. After all, it was only six months ago that Nick Adenhart was killed in a car crash the same night he had played well in a game. Howard had just done the same thing, recording 11 tackles and a forced fumble and fumble in UCONN’s win over Louisville.. One of the most chilling aspects of this story comes from coach Randy Edsall who explained what it was like to hear and deliver the news:

In case you can’t listen to Edsall’s address, here’s a transcript of some of his comments.

“There’s nothing written in the manual in how to deal with these situations, but I know this — this is a strong team, with strong leadership, and we’ll get through it. I was called into the operating room to identify the body, 4, 4:30 [a.m. Sunday], somewhere in that range, and then I got on the phone with the doctor, Dr. Marshall, and had to make a phone call to Jasper’s family. I proceeded from there to go down and address the student athletes who were there, the students who were there in a room and needless to say, that was not a very enjoyable moment for me.”

What a brutal, brutal experience to go through. My sincerest empathy goes out to everyone who was hurt by this death of Howard. I really hope the assailant is nabbed and brought to justice.