ATLANTA — When Michael Pitre was coaching high-school football in southern California at the start of his career, the idea that someday he would be in the NFL as a position coach responsible for a top-10 draft pick was not so much a distant dream as a non-possibility.
Then a recent graduate of UCLA, where he played fullback and was a team captain, Pitre planned to be a high-school coach and to teach special education, a wholly worthy pursuit.
“I think he would have been successful no matter where he was at,” said Troy Thomas, who had Pitre on his coaching staff at Servite High in Anaheim, Calif., from 2009-11.
