Kyle Shotwell is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

, best known for winning the 2006

Buck Buchanan Award The Buck Buchanan Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding defensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) of college football, and was first given in 1995 after the Walter Payton Award was ...

, awarded annually to the national defensive player of the year in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision.

Early life

At the prep level, Shotwell starred at Goleta's

Dos Pueblos High School Dos Pueblos High School is a public high school located in Goleta, California, northwest of Santa Barbara. Located adjacent to the foothills on the edge of the Goleta Valley in an area known as El Encanto Heights, it serves a student body of app ...

, for which he was later selected to the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame in 2011.

College career

Shotwell played the entirety of his NCAA career at Cal Poly in

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

. He was announced as the Buchanan Award recipient in December 2006 in Tennessee. Shotwell collected 275 total voting points in the balloting for the award, including 23 first-place votes. Following making a game-high seven tackles in the

East-West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

, leading the West squad to a 21–3 win at

Reliant Stadium NRG Stadium (previously known as Reliant Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to h ...

, Shotwell won the Pat Tillman Award in 2007.

Professional career

Shotwell signed an undrafted free-agent contract with the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

in 2007. After being released by Oakland following the preseason, he joined the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

practice squad midway during the 2007 season. He then signed with

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

in January 2008, but was released by the Colts on August 30 following the completion of the preseason. However, in November 2008, he signed with

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

as a member of the Chiefs' practice squad, prior to becoming a coach in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shotwell, Kyle Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American football linebackers Players of American football from Santa Barbara County, California Cal Poly Mustangs football players Oakland Raiders players Philadelphia Eagles players Indianapolis Colts players Kansas City Chiefs players Dos Pueblos High School alumni