This is the first of nine articles highlighting the CSU Pueblo Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductees and today's first article features former Pack football player and current Tampa Bay Bucs center Ryan Jensen (2009-12).
When Ryan Jensen joins 12 other football players in the Colorado State University Pueblo Athletics Hall of Fame on October 6, he'll be at the start of a journey in becoming one of the most recognizable high school and college performers ever produced by the "Centennial State".
The fourth annual CSU Pueblo Athletes Hall of Fame Banquet during Homecoming weekend will be held in the Occhiato Student Center Ballroom on October 6. The 2023 inductees will then be recognized during the homecoming football game on October 7 against Adams State that will be played in the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl.
Joining Jensen as 2023 inductees are or Bobby Graham (men's basketball, 1963-1966), Bailey Hughes (women's cross country, track & field, 2015-2017), Deborah Hunter (women's basketball, volleyball, 1985-1987), Shelly Watts (women's basketball, 1985-1988) and Derrick Williams (men's cross country, track & field, 2014-2018).
Mike Friedman (football, 1974-1983) will also be inducted as the along with the Trahern Family, who spanned 13 seasons and over 400 games and matches in both volleyball and basketball, will join the Hall as Legacy Contributors.
The 2016-2017 women's basketball team that posted a 28-4 overall record and captured the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season title and hosted the NCAA South Regional Tournament for the first and only time in school history will join the Hall of Fame in the Team category.
A total of 192 players born in the state of Colorado have played in the NFL and Jensen ranks 27th in games played with 100 contests to his credit. That figure would be more, but Jensen missed the 2022 season due to injury and will miss this year due to medical issues.
One of four players drafted into the NFL from CSU Pueblo, Jensen said "I didn't get recruited mainly because I was super undersized. Coming out of high school I was 6'2" and 210 pounds my senior year, I was a string bean. I got two scholarship offers, both DII and both for not a lot of money. One was to Western State (Colorado) and the other was to CSU-Pueblo. I chose Pueblo because my brother transferred there from Nebraska, and it would have been a cool experience to play with my brother."
Jensen said "going to Pueblo, I had never really thought that I would play, at least not until my junior or senior year. So, it was a little weird for me to come in and start playing right away. That's why my favorite memory was just getting that first start."
One of three Fort Morgan High products to play in the NFL, Jensen said "for me, coming from a small town in northeast Colorado, not getting a D-I look and going to a Division II school at CSU Pueblo - there's always kind of that chip on my shoulder to improve and to prove a lot of people wrong, I attacked the game with that kind of passion of trying to prove people wrong."
Jensen added that "going into my junior year, my offensive line coach came up to me and said "Don't give up any sacks this year and you could get on the radar. I think you have what it takes to play in the NFL. I took it for what it was, mainly thought it was a motivational technique. Then, halfway through my junior year, there were a couple of scouts scouting our quarterback and they noticed me on film."
A finalist for the Gene Upshaw Award presented annually to the nation's top Division II lineman in 2012, Jensen said, "The draft process is tough for smaller school guys, because a lot of times we don't get invited to these main showcase games like the Senior Bowl. I ended up getting invited to the Texas vs. The Nation bowl. I went to that bowl, and I was one of the few DII guys even at that bowl. It was different because you're always watching the DI guys and they look so much bigger and faster and stronger on TV, then you go up and play against them and realize that yeah, they play at a higher level, but I can play at that level."
After being picked by the Baltimore Ravens in the sixth round of the 2013 NFL Draft, Jensen played only one game of his rookie season due to a broken foot. Other medical issues appeared during his second season before he became the Ravens' starting center in 2017.
Jensen signed a four-year contract with Tampa Bay in 2018 and played on the Bucs Super Bowl championship team in 2021. He re-signed with Tampa Bay in March 2022 before hitting the injury list twice. The 2021 Pro Bowler will miss the 2023 season after he tore his ACL, MCL and PCL with a bone chip and fracture in his knee.
This for a player that thought his "pro career arrived with one gummed-up computer," according to Jensen. "I was actually in a team room where we go to do homework and a couple of the scouts were in there watching film and the (computer) just crashed. So I went in and figured it out, got it going and they said, 'You're No. 66, right?' And I said I was, and they started telling me, 'You need to do this, this and this, and you've got a really good shot.'"
John Wristen, who retired last December after 15 seasons of leading the CSU Pueblo football program, said Jensen is "one of the most competitive big guys I've ever been around. When we first got him, when we saw how athletic he was, how explosive, we knew. Some big guys are just floppers; they spend too much time on the ground. This guy was athletic, ran well and was just so tenacious."
Wristen saw enough in Jensen's freshman year to toss him into the lineup in the third game of the 2009 season, lining up the true freshman at left tackle and leaving him there four years.
"I was out there, at about 235 (pounds) at tackle, just playing as hard as I could," Jensen said. "I still remember the first play. It was Right 94-Zeus, an inside zone play. I got a knockdown on the first play. It was exciting."
Jensen said he "started playing football at a really young age, in second grade. As a kid, I really just played it because my older brother (Seth) played. You know how that is with younger brothers, they always want to be like their older brother. I always wanted to do what he did and that's what got me into football. To be honest, I never knew if I wanted to play at the highest level, in the NFL. I wasn't really recruited out of high school, so I didn't think I really had a chance."
At 6-3, 210 pounds, Jensen finished prep career as an all-state defensive lineman and his college choices were between CSU Pueblo and Western Colorado. The Gunnison school was recruiting Jensen as a defender.
"I was really close at Western," Jensen said. "I loved the campus, the town, and they treated me great, but my parents said, 'Just take the visit to Pueblo and see,' " Jensen said. "So, I made the visit, and they were pretty clear they saw me on offense, and I was ready to do that. And all that D-I experience you saw on the coaching staff, it just kind of felt right."
"I was an undersized guy going into college, 230 pounds my freshman year of college," said Jensen. "I ended up having to start playing tackle at that weight. The only way I could survive was to play nasty and play physical and play through the whistle. That's definitely where I kind of got [my] style from."
