REUBEN LOWERY III IS USED TO READING SYSTEMS under pressure, both on the football field and in the engineering lab.
As a mechanical engineering student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he was balancing football practice alongside engineering school, projects, and exams. After graduation, the shift into NFL preparation came fast.
“It was a very quick transition [to becoming a full-time athlete],” Lowery said. “As a student athlete, I had been doing engineering and school and football. And then once the NFL prep started, they get you straight in there and that’s really all you’re doing. It’s full-time training.”
Even as he began preparing for a possible pro career, Lowery said he kept an eye out for opportunities because he did not know for sure whether he would make it to the NFL.
“I was still on LinkedIn,” he said. “I was still trying to keep up with the engineering world to see where am I going to backtrack? What’s the next plan?”
Lowery was picked up by the Indianapolis Colts, who claimed him off waivers in October 2025. While still early in his professional football career, the position meshes well with his engineering eye: a safety is often expected to read the entire field and process moving pieces quickly.
“There’s definitely a lot of overlap [with football and engineering]. The most beautiful thing about engineering school is that because it’s so tough, you have to find a unique way in which you learn. And you can take that into any path of life you go through.”
And while “there’s no one stop shop for problem solving,” Lowery does believe that knowing how to best understand a new framework puts you ahead.
“People would make fun of me all the time for my note taking [at football practice] because it seemed like I was in class,” he said. “But that was a big thing for me. If I understand the whole picture, then I can really understand the bits and pieces.”
Family Ties
Despite the teasing around his notetaking, teammates have praised Lowery’s high field IQ, which also correlates with his high GPA at school. But he’s still quick to credit much of his success today with the habits his family helped instill in him from a young age.
“There’s a level of talent that was allotted to me that I’m very grateful for physically and mentally,” he said. “But there was a lot of things that were built in me when I was younger.”
Lowery’s engineering roots started at home. His father studied engineering at Georgia Tech, and his mother was a math teacher, so the household was primed for a path to STEM.
“Growing up, I was like, I want to be like him [my dad]. I wasn’t really sure which field, mechanical or electrical. I just knew I wanted to be an engineer,” he said. “And my mom was a math teacher, so naturally I did math all summer long.”
He added that his siblings were also great role models for him: his older sisters, one a travel nurse and the other a teacher, set a good example. “They were a lot smarter than me. They were very intentional with their schoolwork, very intentional with their grades. And so it was it was good to have those people in my life,” he said.
Lowery doesn’t have many pet peeves, but if he had to name one, it would be energy drinks. He avoids them entirely, and even skips coffee, despite how common both are among engineering students and football players. What is he running on instead? “Nine hours of splendid sleep.”
“People would make fun of me all the time for my note taking [at football practice] because it seemed like I was in class. But that was a big thing for me. If I understand the whole picture, then I can really understand the bits and pieces.”
—Reuben Lowery III, NFL Safety, Indianapolis Colts
Student Life
During his undergrad at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Lowery was part of the UTC Rocket Mocs, a student rocketry team that worked on a ground-up build for a rocket attempting to break an altitude record of around 40,000 feet.
“We got a chance to go to California and to shoot it up in the air, and it actually broke the record—it just didn’t come down too safely,” he laughed. “You can put that on me, I was recovering. But it was a really fun time.”
He also worked on an accessible light switch project for elderly people and people with hand limitations, and much like his younger days, spent the summers learning.
“I think one of my favorite parts was just working with my professors throughout the summer,” he said. “I got to learn a lot of coding languages, learn how to write academic papers. I was looking forward to, like, where can engineering take me? It opened up a lot of pathways I could go on.”
Backup Plans
If football someday gives way to engineering again, he already knows the kind of work that would pull him back: clean energy, especially hydrogen-powered cars.
“I really like the concept of hydrogen-powered cars,” he said. “I think that’s really, really cool. I was going to do my graduate research in clean energy and clean energy sources, So nuclear, solar, all that good stuff.”
And as he got into the graduate side, Lowery said he realized more of the benefit of societies and conferences.
“We have an ASME chapter at ETC, and it was led by one of my favorite professors,” he said. “These resources are needed—it’s very helpful for understanding where we’re at, like if you’re not in the engineering world every single day. It’s good to have that to further your learning.”
Sarah Alburakeh is strategic content editor.
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