UCF’s Pittman ill, regrets missing game
ST. PETERSBURG —
was supposed to be playing in the East-West Shrine Game on Saturday. Instead, however, the former UCF defensive tackle was in Dallas where he was getting over a bout with the flu.
Pittman, who will be training in Dallas as he prepares for a possible shot at the NFL, arrived in St. Pete this past week. After coming down with the flu bug, he eventually returned to Dallas on Thursday.
“Yeah, I was real sick, but I’m getting over it now,” Pittman said. “On Sunday was when I felt the worst. I tried to practice. I did the individuals and then once I got finished, they told me I had a 103.6 [degree] fever.”
Pittman was one of two UCF players invited to play in the Shrine Game. Offensive tackle has been injured and could not play.
Pittman, a 6-foot, 205-pound interior lineman, was hoping to make a good impression in front of NFL scouts this week, looking to raise his stock so that he might possibly hear his name during the NFL draft in April.
“I was questioning a lot of stuff. I was like, ‘Why all of the sudden right now?’ ” Pittman said. “This was one of the biggest opportunities for me. I haven’t been invited to the combine and I could have earned an invite this week. … But everything happens for a reason and I’m just going to pray about it.”
Pittman is also hoping his absence won’t hurt his NFL potential.
“I don’t know why I’m thinking the worst. I just wish I could prove myself right now this week,” Pittman said. “I feel like I’m an under-the-radar guy right now and that game would have helped me out a whole lot, but I feel like if I would have continued to try to practice, I would have hurt myself [by under-performing].”
His body of work from UCF is still pretty good résumé material. This past season for the 13-0 Knights, Pittman earned American Athletic Conference firstteam honors. He had 47 tackles, including 7.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. Pittman had a huge game in the Peach Bowl victory over Auburn with five tackles and 1.5 sacks. USF quarterback
was supposed to put on a show for the hometown crowd at Tropicana Field, but he had to leave town Friday due to a death in the family. As a result, the East squad’s quarterback duties fell to Ohio State’s and Memphis’
The Shrine Game was to be a big opportunity for Flowers, who is still working to prove he could be successful at the next level as a quarterback. Several teams would love to see him at other positions, but Flowers has always been set on playing quarterback, no matter the level. This week during practice for the Shrine Game, coaches had Flowers working with the punt-return unit.
USF did have three other representatives at the game in running back cornerback
and defensive lineman
who was dressed out but an injury kept him out of the game.
It took nearly three full quarters for either team to put an offensive touchdown on the scoreboard, but even then the East squad needed help from a defensive player. Barrett finally broke the ice with a short touchdown pass to Slippery Rock defensive end who was lined up as a tight end on the play.
The touchdown gave the East a 10-7 lead with 1:57 left in the third quarter. The West squad tacked on the game-winning touchdown with 1:23 left. Texas Tech quarterback connected with Houston’s for a 34-yard scoring pass to make the final score 14-10.