In which BracketCat counts down the 45th day until the 2024 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State linebacker Austin Romaine.

#45 Austin Romaine

True Sophomore | 6-2 | 242 lbs. | Hillsboro, Missouri

Position: Linebacker
Previous College: None
Projection: Co-Starter
Status: On Scholarship

Austin Romaine (b. Sept. 3, 2004) is a tough young linebacker who is majoring in business administration and displays good tackling, awareness, and pursuit skills.

I predicted him to redshirt in 2023, but due to a combination of unexpected promise and rampant injuries at the middle linebacker position, I was entirely wrong about that.

As a true freshman, Romaine played in 12 games last season with five starts as he earned votes from the league’s coaches for the Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year award.

His five starts were the most by a K-State true freshman defender since cornerback Duke Shelley started seven games in 2015 and the most by a K-State true freshman linebacker since at least 1988. He totaled 22 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack on the season.

In relief of the injured Daniel Green, Romaine set a season high with six tackles at Oklahoma State, while he had four at Texas Tech and three each against both Troy and UCF. He had a tackle for loss in three straight games, which included his first career sack at Texas Tech.

Romaine tallied his first career tackle for loss against UCF in his first-ever career start, a game in which he became K-State’s first true freshman to start at linebacker since Tre Walker in 2010 (Missouri and Colorado), as well as the first in a home game since Reggie Blackwell in 1989 (North Texas). By season’s end, he was playing through a broken hand too!

Romaine prepped under head coach Bill Sucharski at Hillsboro (Mo.) High School, where he was regarded as the 49th-best inside linebacker in the Class of 2023 by ESPN.

He earned first-team all-state honors as both a junior and senior from the Missouri Football Coaches Association, and was selected as his league’s most valuable player in 2022.

Romaine recorded 117 tackles and seven sacks as a high school senior, while he totaled 85 tackles, 19 tackles for loss and eight sacks as a junior. He also rushed for 3,196 yards and 45 touchdowns over his prep career for the Hawks, and competed in baseball as well.

Romaine selected K-State over offers from Air Force, Brown, Buffalo, Columbia, Harvard, Murray State, New Mexico State, Northern Iowa, Ohio, Penn, Rice, Samford, South Dakota, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Illinois, Tulane and Yale, plus interest from Arkansas.

His primary recruiter was his new position coach, linebackers coach Steve Stanard.

Here’s what defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman had to say about Romaine’s chances to see the field last season following spring practices (he was definitely right about Romaine!):

Just a side note on all these early enrollee kids — (Kam Sallis and Wesley Fair), Austin Romaine at linebacker and Chiddi Obiazor at defensive end, I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of those guys playing for us in the fall.

We just felt Austin Romaine has been tremendous, especially, he’s just a freshman. What he’s doing is incredible.

After this spring, Stanard had more glowing praise for his newest rising star:

Austin has really started to come into his own. He has heavy hands, but he’s learned to get off blocks. He’s starting to recognize formations and get ahead of the play instead of it being all reactionary. He’s starting to become the leader of his class, and he’s learning to communicate.

Klanderman said he also observed this growth in Romaine’s leadership during the spring:

We’re trying to get Austin Romaine to realize he’s not a young guy anymore and that he’s an older guy, and he’s done a great job with that.

Daniel Green had very high praise for this kid last year at Big 12 Media Days, which proved prescient. Even before Green’s injury, Romaine was set to not redshirt his freshman season.

Now he enters 2024 as the presumptive favorite to start at the middle linebacker position, as long as he can hold off fellow 2023 starter Beau Palmer and newcomer Alec Marenco.