Where Are They Now - Austin Jensen - Florida Atlantic University Athletics

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Austin Jensen imagined a much different 2010 than the one he experienced.

Already a key special teamer for Florida Atlantic University, Jensen thought he'd contribute on defense as well. He worked hard in the weight room and in team drills to earn that opportunity. Austin Jensen Action 0

Jensen wanted to lead FAU to its third bowl game in four years, all of which he would've been a part of.

On Feb. 13, 2010, however, his thought process shifted to something simpler: survival.

Jensen and some teammates were driving to FAU's 2009 season banquet that night. But their car crashed on the way there, flipping onto the I-95 pavement. Jensen flew out the window upon impact.

None of the passengers sustained major injuries -- except for Jensen. He fractured his pelvis in four places and his skull in two. His brain was bleeding. He had "a ton of road rash, covering mostly the left side of my body."

Paramedics rushed Jensen to the hospital, where he entered a medically induced coma for four days. Jensen stayed there for two and a half weeks, but he can't remember much - if any - of it because he was under heavy medication.

Jensen pieced together his hospital experience through newspaper clippings. And what he learned was that coach Howard Schnellenberger, along with his teammates and family, were there for him in his time of need.

"I had a really good support system, a good support structure, all the way from the top down," Jensen said. "Coach Schnellenberger kind of headed that operation very professionally, managed that situation for me to focus on my recovery first, and making sure that I was safe, taken care of in that respect."

After leaving the hospital, Jensen dropped his spring classes and went home to rehab his injuries.

But he wasn't gone long. Jensen returned to FAU in the fall, using a redshirt to preserve his final year of eligibility. Jenson wanted to lead that season, and although he couldn't do it as a player, he found another way: coaching.

Jensen served as the Owls' assistant special teams coordinator for the 2010 season, helping direct the unit he once headlined.

Talking was never Jensen's forte as a player; he "talked with my pads and with my actions." As a coach, however, Jensen needed to be more vocal. That transition went smoother than he anticipated.

"It was easy, actually," Jensen said. "It just felt right."

It helped that many of the special teamers were incoming freshmen, unaware of Jensen's story. They didn't see Jensen as a punt-team gunner or a car-accident survivor; they saw and respected him as coach.

For Jensen's upperclassmen friends, like safety Marcus Bartels and running back Alfred Morris, the respect ran even deeper.

"I had a significant respect from those guys because they knew what I was crawling out of: coming out of a coma, the car accident, the injuries, and so on, what I had overcome," Jensen said.

Once the 2010 season concluded, Jensen focused on returning to the field for '11. He trained harder than ever that summer - and felt his biggest, fastest and strongest as a result.

From the neck down, Jensen was ready for a comeback. But his head held him back. Despite receiving clearance from a neurologist, Jensen's doctors decided his brain injuries were too significant to play through.

"Unfortunately, all the hard work that I put in to getting my body prepared for the playing field kind of went out the window," Jensen said. "… At the time, I felt like a kid on Christmas who got to open his presents but never got to play with them."

Jensen couldn't get back on the field like intended, but he still made an impact by coaching the Owls' special teams for a second season. He added another line to his resume, too: intern with FAU's strength and conditioning staff.

Having a football background made the internship easy for Jensen. He knew how to relate exercises to specific on-field movements, an ability his athletes appreciated.

"If I can help myself do the things I was able to achieve, physically, in the weight room, I know I could be productive in helping other people to do the same thing as well," Jensen said. "And I just had a natural feeling that that's kind of the area I should be in."

Jensen began looking for a new strength and conditioning job upon his 2011 graduation. The search brought him to where his journey started: Manatee High School (Fla.), Jensen's alum mater.

The school named him assistant strength and conditioning coach, which Jensen said was "fantastic" but "a big responsibility." Jensen wanted the students, whose shoes he once stood in, to achieve as much as he did.

Jensen shared his car accident story to accomplish that.

"When it comes to these athletes, to be able to share that experience with them, I think they understand that even though you come across a challenge, you could definitely overcome it," Jensen said. "You have the ability to respond to every situation. And if you want to respond one way and go down a bad path, you can do that. Or you could choose the path I did and put some work into it, overcome the situation, and be a better version of yourself coming out."

Along with his job at Manatee, Jensen served as a strength and conditioning coach at The Performance Training Zone and as a personal trainer at a YMCA. He earned his massage therapy certification in 2012.

While working at the YMCA, though, Jensen got the inspiration for the next step of his career. He saw people recovering from injuries struggling in their return to the gym. They were healthy enough to work out on their own, but the injuries made their weight-lifting techniques "terrible."

Jensen wanted to combine his strength and conditioning background with physical therapy to address that need. So, in 2016, he earned an associate degree in physical therapy and began working at it.

Helping people recover - and get stronger - through injuries was relatively new to Jensen. But he did exactly that at FAU, and it's impacting how he teaches others.

"My experience in physical therapy, I was able to recreate that with a lot of people, kind of build people from the ground up, because that's what I had to do," Johnson said.

This past April, Jensen began health coaching on the side. He's only working with 8-10 clients, but Jensen says he's making a much bigger difference than that number indicates. Jensen believes that if he teaches one person healthy habits, they'll share them with others, and the habits will spread cyclically from there.

"I have the ability, through this program, to actually use all of my background -- both as an athlete and as a coach, a [physical therapy assistant], a massage therapist -- to really help people from a total health and total body perspective, make a big impact on a lot of people's lives," Jensen said.

Schnellenberger was a part of the highs - FAU's 2007 New Orleans Bowl win - and the lows - the two-week hospital visit - of Jensen's life. And his steady presence through it all shaped the way Jensen approaches his clients.

"One of his sayings was to believe is to be strong," Jensen said. "And I think that we're able to really bring that to a lot of the people that I work with, to create strength and stability between the temples, so to speak. I think, when you're able to take some aspects of [Schnellenberger's] coaching style - that grit that he brings to the table, that old-school coaching style, hard work always pays off, that kind of thing - you're going to be able to find success in anything you do."

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Where Are They Now - Austin Jensen

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Event: Football at FIU on September 13, 2025 at 6 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Football versus Memphis on September 27, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Football at Rice on October 4, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Football versus UAB on October 11, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Football at South Florida on October 18, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Football at Navy on October 25, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Florida Atlantic University Athletics

Where Are They Now - Austin Jensen

Related Videos