{"id":88314,"date":"2026-06-16T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=88314"},"modified":"2026-06-16T09:33:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:33:03","slug":"74-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/06\/16\/74-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff\/","title":{"rendered":"74 Days Away From College Football Kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are 74 days away from college football kickoff. \u00a0The countdown<\/a> is rockin’ on. \u00a0Today, we have Tracy Rocker of Auburn, Michael Oher of Ole Miss, and John Hicks of Ohio State\u2014three great players who are excited for you to read more about their college careers. Be sure to check back tomorrow for #73 in our countdown<\/a> to kickoff. Enjoy!<\/span><\/div>\n

Tracy Rocker Days Away From College Football Kickoff<\/h2>\n

Historic Rocker<\/h3>\n
Tracy Rocker<\/a> is considered one of the greatest and most decorated defensive players in Auburn and Southeastern Conference history. He was known for making life difficult for offensive coordinators across the country. Rocker was a unanimous First Team All-America selection in 1988 and a consensus pick in 1987. <\/span><\/div>\n
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He earned First Team All-Conference honors three times and became the first SEC player to win both the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award in the same season, which he accomplished in 1988. Rocker was named Auburn’s Defensive Player of the Year twice and was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 1988. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Rocker helped lead the Tigers to two conference titles. He was also named to Auburn’s Team of the Century and Team of the Decade for the 1980s. With 354 career tackles, he holds the record for the most tackles by any down lineman in school history. He also had 48 tackles for loss and 21 career sacks. <\/span><\/div>\n
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After graduating, Rocker played three seasons in the NFL with the Washington Redskins. He later began a coaching career as an accomplished defensive line coach.<\/span><\/div>\n

Another Great # 74, Michael Oher, Ole Miss<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Michael Oher<\/a>, who is known as the inspiration for the best-selling book and movie “The Blind Side,” was a standout lineman at Ole Miss. He started 47 straight games from 2005 to 2008, earning two All-American honors and three All-SEC selections. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2008, Oher was a finalist for both the Outland Trophy, given to the nation\u2019s top lineman, and the Conerly Trophy. He was also a semifinalist for the Lombardi Award. That year, league coaches named Oher the SEC\u2019s best blocker with the Jacobs Blocking Trophy, and he received the Shug Jordan Award as the Southeast Offensive Lineman of the Year from The Touchdown Club of Atlanta.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oher\u2019s professional career began when the Baltimore Ravens picked him 23rd overall in the 2009 NFL Draft. He played eight seasons in the NFL, starting all 110 games of his career. Oher started 13 playoff games and played in two Super Bowls: he won Super Bowl XLVII as the Ravens\u2019 starting right tackle in 2012 and started at left tackle for the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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One More Great #74, John Hicks, Ohio State<\/b><\/h3>\n
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John<\/span> Hicks started for three years at tackle under Hall of Fame Coach Woody Hayes. During that time, Ohio State won Big Ten Conference championships in 1970, 1972, and 1973, and played in the Rose Bowl each season. \u00a0<\/span>He was the first player to start in three Rose Bowls and was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2009.<\/p>\n

Hicks made history in 1973. He was a unanimous All-American and won both the Lombardi Award and the Outland Trophy, recognizing him as the nation\u2019s best interior lineman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hicks was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft by the New York Giants and played for them from 1974 to 1977. He was inducted into the Ohio State Sports Hall of Fame in 1985 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001. After football, he ran a real estate development company and gave back to the community through organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of Central Ohio and the Central Ohio Diabetes Association.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Editor’s Note: The countdown to college football kickoff has been a series on the Last Word on College Football social media platforms for the past 9 years. \u00a0They consisted of a photo and a small blurb for each player, with the jersey corresponding to the number of days until kickoff. \u00a0The rank of the players is sourced from articles by Bleacher Report, Fox Sports, and The Athletic. There are also some favorite players of the Last Word on College Football writers. \u00a0Their bios are sourced from multiple online sources, including but not limited to the College Football Hall of Fame, their Heisman profiles, and school websites.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are 74 days away from college football kickoff. \u00a0The countdown is rockin’ on. \u00a0Today, we have Tracy Rocker of Auburn, Michael Oher of Ole Miss, and John Hicks of Ohio State\u2014three great players who are excited for you to read more about their college careers. Be sure to check back tomorrow for #73 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1643,"featured_media":88360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35583,3],"tags":[5153,33970,36174,36173,6708,599],"class_list":["post-88314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-auburn-tigers","category-sec","tag-all-american","tag-lombardi-trophy","tag-ohio-state","tag-ole-miss","tag-outland-trophy","tag-rose-bowl"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88314"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88407,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88314\/revisions\/88407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}