Former University of Central Arkansas football player Dylan Desper died on January 7 after being involved in an accident just months before his planned wedding. He was 27. Desper was an offensive lineman for the Bears from 2018 to 2019, appearing on the team's 2019 Southland Championship squad. "He fought for a really, really long time," his fiancée Makenzie Pickering told Arkansas' Fox16 on Tuesday, January 13. "He fought so hard.