{"id":88317,"date":"2026-06-17T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=88317"},"modified":"2026-06-16T21:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T01:50:30","slug":"73-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/06\/17\/73-days-away-from-college-football-kickoff\/","title":{"rendered":"73 Days Away From College Football Kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are 73 days away from college football kickoff. We are halfway through the week. Does it feel like this month is flying by just like this countdown?<\/a>\u00a0 Today we have Shawn Andrews an Arkansas Razorback and Jim Dombrowski a Virginia Cavalier. \u00a0Both impressive players. We hope you enjoy learning more about Andrews and Dombrowski. <\/span>Be sure to check back tomorrow for #72 in our countdown<\/a> to kickoff. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Shawn Andrews <\/span>Days Away From College Football Kickoff<\/h2>\n

Arkansas Andrews<\/h3>\n
Shawn Andrews<\/a> went to Camden Fairview High School, where he earned Parade All-American and USA Today.com All-American honors. After high school, he joined the University of Arkansas and became just the third freshman in school history to start on the offensive line. He started the last nine regular-season games and the 2002 Cotton Bowl at right tackle, earning first-team freshman All-American honors from the Associated Press.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Andrews became the first sophomore in school history to be named a first-team All-American, receiving recognition from several organizations, including the Associated Press, the American Football Coaches\u2019 Association, the Football Writers\u2019 Association of America, CNNSI.com, ESPN.com, College Football News, and The Sporting News. That season, he started 12 games at right tackle and helped the SEC\u2019s leading rushing team, which ranked 12th in the nation.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Andrews continued to improve and was a consensus All-American as a junior. He was a finalist for both the Lombardi Award and the Outland Trophy as the Razorbacks led the SEC in rushing and finished fifth nationally, averaging 241.9 yards per game. In 2003, Andrews won the Jacobs Award again and was named first-team All-SEC by both the coaches and the Associated Press.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Despite missing part of his senior season with a back injury, Andrews still managed 98 pancake blocks and averaged 88 percent on his blocking assignments. He also made 30 tackles and nine sacks on defense. <\/span><\/div>\n
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In 2004, the Philadelphia Eagles selected Andrews in the first round of the NFL Draft, trading up with the San Francisco 49ers to get him at the 16th pick. In the NFL, he made the Pro Bowl three times (2005, 2006, 2007) and was named First-Team All-Pro in 2006. <\/span><\/div>\n

Another Great # 73, Jim Dombrowski, Virginia<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Jim Dombrowski<\/a> received a full scholarship to the University of Virginia, where he became one of the top student-athletes in the school\u2019s history. He earned the NCAA Today\u2019s Top Six Award for his athletic ability, academic success, leadership, and involvement on campus. In 1984, Dombrowski was a unanimous First Team All-America football pick and was named First Team All-ACC three times. The university retired his #73 jersey to honor his achievements. <\/span>In 2008, Dombrowski was inducted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame for his college career.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Dombrowski was chosen by the New Orleans Saints as the sixth overall pick in the 1986 NFL draft, making him the highest drafted player from Western New York. He started most games during his 11 seasons with the Saints from 1986 to 1996, playing both guard and tackle. He was named to the Saints All-Time Team for the team\u2019s 30th, 35th, and 40th anniversaries, and was inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame in 2003.<\/span><\/div>\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: Paul Chapman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are 73 days away from college football kickoff. We are halfway through the week. Does it feel like this month is flying by just like this countdown?\u00a0 Today we have Shawn Andrews an Arkansas Razorback and Jim Dombrowski a Virginia Cavalier. \u00a0Both impressive players. We hope you enjoy learning more about Andrews and Dombrowski. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1643,"featured_media":88411,"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":[2,35588,3],"tags":[36114,36178,321],"class_list":["post-88317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-arkansas-razorbacks","category-sec","tag-countdown-to-kickoff","tag-jacobs-award","tag-virginia-cavaliers"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88317","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=88317"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88412,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88317\/revisions\/88412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}