At the prep level, Shotwell starred at Goleta's Dos Pueblos High School, for which he was later selected to the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame in 2011.
[1] Shotwell played the entirety of his NCAA career at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.
[3] Following making a game-high seven tackles in the East-West Shrine Game, leading the West squad to a 21–3 win at Reliant Stadium,[4] Shotwell won the Pat Tillman Award in 2007.
[6] After being released by Oakland following the preseason, he joined the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad midway during the 2007 season.
[8] However, in November 2008, he signed with Kansas City as a member of the Chiefs' practice squad, prior to becoming a coach in 2009.