Austin Romaine’s Rise to Stardom: Why Kansas State’s Linebackers Could Be the Best in College Football in 2025

Kansas State linebacker Austin Romaine is no longer under the radar—he might be the best linebacker in all of college football heading into 2025. On today’s episode of Locked On Kansas State, Christian Rauh and guest Joe Tillery break down Romaine’s journey from 3-star recruit to PFF’s highest-graded Power 4 linebacker with a 91.0 grade. The duo also dives deep into K-State’s loaded linebacker room featuring Romaine, Desmond Purnell, and Ohio State transfer Gabe Powers. Is this the best positional group in the Big 12? Could it be the best linebacker unit in the entire country? And are we sleeping on the most complete defense of the Chris Klieman era? Topics include: Austin Romaine’s NFL Draft outlook and All-American potential Gabe Powers’ impact and why he might be the top defensive transfer in the Big 12 Whether the Wildcats run more 3-3-5 or 4-2-5 looks Why this defense might carry K-State to a Big 12 title And how the Avery Johnson hype may be overshadowing a dominant defensive core 🟣 SUBSCRIBE to Locked On Kansas State for daily K-State content 🗣️ COMMENT: Is Romaine the best linebacker in college football? Top 5? Who else belongs in that convo? Locked On College Conferences, HBCU, Basketball & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnCollege Follow on Twitter: https://x.com/lockedonKState Follow the show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3HhcfyjaoLGxYjsL1KmSZM #KansasState #KansasStateFootball #KansasStateWildcats #NCAA #CollegeFootball Big 12 Conference: Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, Baylor Bears, BYU Cougars, UCF Knights, Cincinnati Bearcats, Colorado Buffaloes, Houston Cougars, Iowa State Cyclones, Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats, Oklahoma State Cowboys, TCU Horned Frogs, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Utah Utes, West Virginia Mountaineers Locked on Kansas State Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.