PUEBLO, Colo. – One of the three Colorado State University Pueblo football products playing in the National Football League will be competing this weekend in the wild card round of the playoffs - Morgan Fox.
Fox, who played for the Pack from 2012-15 and was a member of the school's 2014 NCAA Division II National Championship team, is currenty a defensive end for the Los Angeles Chargers. As a senior with the Pack in 2015, Fox was a finalist for the Cliff Harris Small College Defensive Player of the Year and was the runner-up for the Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year Award and earned Second-Team AP Little All-American honors and was a First-Team All-America selection by the AFCA, D2Football.com, D2CCA and Don Hansen Football Gazette and was named the Rocky Mountain Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
The other two Pack NFLers - Ryan Jensen and Mike Pennel will be watching on the sidelines. With a Super Bowl win to his credit with the 2020 Tampa Bay Bucs, Jensen, who has been on the injured list all season is listed as questionable for the Bucs playoff game on Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys, missed the 2022 regular season due to a knee injury during the team's training camp in July. Pennel Jr., finished the 2022 season as a backup defensive lineman with the Chicago Bears.
In his sixth season in the NFL, Fox has 38 combined tackles this season for the Los Angeles Chargers with 24 solo stops as he started 12 of 17 games for the SoCal eleven that plays at Jacksonville Saturday in the first round of the NFL Playoffs.
For his career, Fox is playing with his third NFL team, starting 27 of 86 NFL contests with 141 career tackles, including 90 solos. He has 18.5 career sacks with one safety to his credit.
A Fountain-Fort Carson prep product, the 28-year old Fox played four seasons (2012-2015) at CSU Pueblo, where he led the nation in sacks as a senior with 1.42 per game for the 12-2 Pack. In 52 career games in Pueblo, he had 164 total tackles with 36 sacks for 250 yards. He had 49.5 total tackles for losses for 276 yards.
With 100 NFL games to his credit, highlighted by 90 starts, Jensen was a sixth-round pick in 2013 after playing four seasons in Pueblo (2009-2012) for the rebirth of the Pack program. He played five seasons with Baltimore before joining the Bucs in 2018.
After a standout prep career in Fort Morgan, Jensen became an immediate starter as a true freshman for the Pack in 2009 and played in 44 career games with all-league and all-American credits to his name.
Playing his ninth season in the NFL with his fifth team, Pennel started two of 17 games for the Bears with 26 combined tackles, including 16 solos. He had two pass deflections with one forced fumble and one fumble recovery this season.
Originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with Green Bay in 2014, Pennel has 118 career NFL games to his credit with 193 total tackles with 106 solo stops. He has also played for the Packers (2014-2016), Jets (2017-2018), Chiefs (2019-2020) and Falcons (2021) and Bears (2022).
The 31-year-old Pennel played at Aurora Grandview before starting his collegiate career at Scottsdale CC and Arizona before finishing his career at CSU Pueblo in 2013, where he had 36 tackles in 12 games with three sacks for the 11-1 Pack.
