Derrick Hallman played with a heavy heart in front of a nationally televised audience Sunday night during UCF’s thrilling 21-20 come-from-behind win over Marshall at Bright House Networks Stadium.

Hallman

“I dedicate this game to my cousin,” said Hallman after assessing an all-around effort that helped the Knights overcoming a late 13-point deficit.

It proved to be a bittersweet reality-check though for the junior out of Fort Pierce, Florida just minutes after proclaiming, “This is the best game I’ve ever been a part of.”

While Hallman was sound asleep in the early hours of Sunday morning his cousin Dave Crawford was shot and killed around 4 a.m. in Alabama. He got the call from his mom close to three hours later and wrestled with the loss throughout the rest of the day.

There was nobody to blame, nobody to hug, nobody to hit or help provide reason.

After receiving the news he avoided making any mention of the tragedy to his teammates or even talking a whole lot with family and friends about it. He instead did the best he could to keep focused on the big conference game he would soon be playing in later that night.

Hallman

“I really didn’t want to talk to nobody, It was just too emotional.” he said. “I was trying to get my head focused on this game, that’s all I was trying to do, just go out there and play with a passion and then think about that after the game.”

But as expected, he couldn’t completely keep his mind off of the loss or even what his family must be going through at the moment. He instead decided to cope by doing all he could to help his football family overcome the adversity they themselves were faced with.

“I just (thought) about my teammates and not letting them down,” said Hallman about finding his way around the initial shock.

He thought, “I can’t do anything about that situation right now. I’ve got to deal with that in the future, but right now this is the biggest game of our season if we want to have a shot at the conference championship.”

And he left everything he had out on the field while finishing the night with four tackles (two for a loss) and staying active in the win before leaving the stadium just as uncertain as he was before he arrived.