Kansas State linebacker Austin Romaine commits to transfer to Texas Tech

Kansas State Wildcats linebacker Austin Romaine commits to transfer to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, according to On3’s Hayes Fawcett. He had entered the portal with a do-not-contact tag.

Austin Romaine played his high school football at Hillsboro in Missouri. There, he was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2023. Romaine had been the 1,464th-ranked recruit overall and the 145th-ranked linebacker in that recruiting cycle.

Romaine would quickly make his impact felt at Kansas State. As a true freshman in 2023, he would play in all 12 games, making five starts. He’d follow that up by playing in 22 games over the next two seasons for the Wildcats. However, in 2025, he did suffer a left-hand injury in Week 10 against Texas Tech. That ended his season early.

During his 34 total games at Kansas State, he has 184 total tackles. Of those, 17.5 were tackles for a loss and 3.5 were sacks. He also has one interception and four passes defended to go with a fumble recovery and three forced fumbles during his career.

As a team, Kansas State went 6-6. It was their worst result since the 2020 season and was considered a major disappointment. It would also be the last season that Chris Klieman led the Kansas State program. On December 3rd, it was announced that he would be retiring. It would be on December 22nd when it was reported that Romaine would enter the Transfer Portal.

Texas Tech is coming off a season where the Red Raiders heavily used the Transfer Portal to great success. That included winning the Big 12 and earning a first round bye in the College Football Playoff. However, the Red Raiders wouldn’t be able to win a game in the CFP and are now expected to turn their attention to the Transfer Portal once again.

Already, Texas Tech has had 17 transfers. That includes eight players on the defensive side of the ball, one of whom is a linebacker. Notably, the Red Raiders have also added edge rusher Amarie Fleming from Allen University, a Division II program.

Texas Tech is in a position where it’s going to need to replace several key defensive players. Among them is Jacob Rodriguez. As a linebacker, he won the Lombardi, Nagurski, and Butkus Awards, not to mention finishing fifth in voting for the Heisman Trophy. Now, he’s moving on to the NFL and Texas Tech is hoping players like Austin Romaine can replace some of his production.