Florida was less than 15 minutes away from its second loss of the season.
The Gators were down by three to South Carolina on the road and were now facing a must convert fourth down. Kyle Trask was looking for Josh Hammond over the middle but was forced out of the pocket. The redshirt junior quarterback scrambled and held on to the ball as long as he could. Trask soon found his target, Kyle Pitts.
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Trask dumped the ball to Pitts for the nine-yard gain and the first down. The Gators would secure the go-ahead touchdown on the next play.
"He's obviously a very dangerous weapon," said Trask about Pitts. "Me and him did a great job of being on the same page."
Trask and Pitts seem to be on the same page a lot these days.
The sophomore tight end has had himself quite the monster season, leading the team with 391 yards receiving and four touchdowns, averaging over 11 yards a catch.The Trask-Pitts connection is responsible for 255 yards and four touchdowns.
"You usually think your junior year is the year you breakout. But God had a different plan for me this year," said Pitts.
"He a big guy, long, big bodied dude, can go make any type of catch off any type of throw," said quarterback Emory Jones. "He makes us look good sometimes. Like just having him on our team, I mean he helps us out a lot."
"He’s a freak of nature," receiver Trevon Grimes added. "He’s a mismatch with anybody, any DB, any linebacker. Anybody you put on him, he’s a mismatch. I kind of feel people are starting to notice that, and he’s the best, in my opinion, tight end in the country.”
Outsiders may have just started to notice Pitt's talent, but those within the program and those that have been around Pitts saw his potential early on.
“Probably his first spring on campus," said Dan Mullen. "Right away you knew he was something special."
"He was blessed with his body type and athleticism," Pitts' former high school head coach Steve Devlin said. "How big he is and how well he moves, he is just really good in space.
"You knew he was going to be something special. He just had to grow into his body."
Devlin, who is now the defensive coordinator at Ursinus College, coached Pitts at Archbishop Wood.
During his time as a Viking, Pitts showed his versatility by playing a variety of roles for Devlin. Whether it was tight end, wide receiver or defensive end, Pitts took advantage of every opportunity to help lead his team to two state titles.
His senior season Pitts not only scored a touchdown during the title game, he also nabbed two picks.
"Everybody is seeing what I saw back in the day," said Devlin. "He is just a freakish athlete but he is having fun out there. You see the smile on his face. You see his personality coming out. He is comfortable. He has caught up with the speed of the game at the major college level. Now he is producing and one of their top players on offense."
His success is no accident. Pitts is known to hang around after practice, running routes and working closely with the quarterbacks.
"He will be the first guy at practice and the last one to leave. He does whatever he needs to do to get better," said Devlin. "He is a kid who, he was going to succeed because of his will and what he wanted out of it. He wanted to be great. He practiced to be great. He trained to be great."
Adjusting from a high school offense to a pro offense took some time for Pitts. During his first year as a Gator, Pitts worked heavily with wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales and the other receivers. The then freshman had to familiarize himself with the offense, learning how to run routes and how to strain each rep.
"He made some big plays for us last year for us. Not quite like this year but he made some," Mullen recalled. "There were other times where he’d just get tangled up or he just wasn’t accustomed to how to get open and run every route, the specifics of how to do it."
Pitts spent most of his time on special teams his freshman season, tallying just three catches for 73 yards and one touchdown.
"This year he’s playing a little bit more attached and the mismatches he creates is his ability to do both," Mullen explained. "Now that he’s comfortable in both positions he’s become more of a mismatch problem.”
“I just think I’ve been maturing working harder in the offseason, working with the receivers and the tight ends in the offseason," said Pitts about what has changed this season for him. "I think it’s helping me develop.”
“I think he's playing a lot more confident," safety Donovan Stiner said. "I think he knows what he's doing better, and he can execute at a higher level.”
“I think one thing that’s really helped him a lot was him playing receiver last year," receiver Josh Hammond said. "Him being that hybrid type of guy and playing receiver all last year. Definitely working with Coach G and Coach [Larry] Scott, both of them and being able to move a lot more fluidly and learn the routes and learn the concepts a lot more better from a receiver standpoint so now when he goes to tight end it’s a lot easier for him to put himself in space and make the plays he has to make. And you know he’s been really good for offense making plays and we’re happy to have him.”
After leaning on C'Yontai Lewis for most of his freshman season, Pitts has now turned to another veteran, Van Jefferson, to help further his development.
"He has taught me about work ethic and doing the extra things and the small things to separate yourself."
Pitts, who has always dreamed of being a Gator, is finally living the dream of his youth.
“This is a school I always want to come to," said Pitts. "You don’t commit to coaches, you commit to the school. I felt like great coaches were going to come to this staff and I would have a great career here.”
Now Pitts can add quietening the crowds at both Death Valley and Williams-Brice Stadium to his ever expanding resume.
“It just makes my heart race," said Pitts about making a big play away from home. "I'm just ready for the next play.”
But as the cliche goes, Pitts' story is only half written.
"He has huge upside. He is only going to get better," said Devlin. "He is going to get better blocking, he is going to get better doing the little things. He has God given abilities to run and catch and do a ll that stuff. He can get better at that. He can perfect his craft. Do the little things will really make him great. He has a huge upside. He is still young. His best days are ahead of him, no doubt."
