He was good enough to earn first-team All-American Athletic Conference honors last season for a University of Central Florida team that went 13-0 and closed things out with a Peach Bowl victory against Auburn, a team that earlier had beaten national champion Alabama.

"That started like me living my best life right now," Pittman said. "It's been progressing since the season started and Coach (Scott) Frost came in and everybody bought in. You could just feel the difference in the facility every morning that everybody was there to win."

Pittman was ready to build on the momentum of his strong senior season at the East-West Shrine Game when fate intervened.

"I had been training in Dallas just going hard and now that's all I'm thinking about, getting a combine invite," he said. "I get on the plane and I start feeling a little pain in my back. I'm not thinking much of it, but once my teammate Aaron Evans comes to pick me up from the airport to take me to the hotel, I'm like, 'Yo, I'm not feeling really good'. The next morning I wake up, they tell me I have a fever of 104 and I should probably not play. And I still tried to practice at first, but it wasn't a good idea. My weight went down. I was at 276. That's not me."

Pittman said the disappointment of what happened leading up to the East-West Shrine Game lasted until the Dolphins called him after the draft to offer a rookie free agent contract.

There were 24 defensive tackles selected in the 2018 draft, and Pittman has no doubt that number would have been 25 if not for his sudden illness.