High school senior and linebacker Tate Romney’s recruitment to BYU football will put him on the roster alongside his brothers Baylor and Gunner, making BYU football a family affair.
Tate has shown his prowess on defense with a career total of 272 tackles, whereas Gunner plays at wide receiver gaining 377 yards in the 2019 season and being part of the first ever brother-to-brother touchdown pass in BYU history. Baylor plays quarterback and threw the historic pass to Gunner in Logan. Baylor, coming off of a red shirt year in 2018, started at the position four times in the 2019 season leading the Cougars to three victories, one of those against in-state rival Utah State.
“It is definitely a dream come true to play at this level with someone that you have been doing it with your whole life,” Baylor said. “It’s cool to have that bond and have someone to put in the extra work with.”
Although all roads seemed to lead to BYU, the Romney brothers all took different paths to get to LaVell Edwards Stadium. Baylor was originally recruited out of his El Paso, Texas, high school to Nevada University. After signing with them, Baylor went on his mission to Carlsbad, California.
Upon returning home, younger brother Gunner was in the heat of the recruiting process, which made Baylor think Nevada may not be the place for him. Baylor accompanied Gunner while he visited schools. With several Pac-12 and other conference offers, Gunner decided to accept BYU.
“I had a lot of options to play at a lot of different schools and I was visiting a lot of different programs,” said Gunner. “When Baylor got home, we knew we wanted to play together and ultimately we decided the BYU was the best place for us.”
Gunner played with their younger brother Tate for one year in high school, something Gunner said made it clear Tate would be a big-time player, and a big-time recruit.
This brotherly intuition proved correct. Tate’s offers started pouring in by his junior year of high school, just as they had for his brothers. The older Romney boys admitted though they wanted to play with Tate, they wanted him to make the decision for himself.
Tate finished his recruiting process, signing with BYU and joining his two older brothers.
“We have been saying for a long time that Tate was coming to BYU. He was just such a BYU kid,” said Gunner. “But when he finally made that decision and wrapped his mind around it was pretty cool to know he is going to be up here and to know he’s going to get to do what we’re doing.”
Although this is the first time to have three brothers together, it is not the first time that family has played at LaVell Edwards at the same time. The Kaufusi family is long-standing in their tradition with BYU football.
The Kaufusi’s are well-known with Corbin and Bronson Kaufusi now playing in the NFL, along with Jackson, Devin and Isaiah still on the roster.
Brothers Austin and Dylan Collie were one of many brother pairings who have shared the field. The team has seen not just brothers but also many cousins like Aleva Hifo and Sione Takitaki as well as Beau and Tristen Hoge.
“It has been an individual dream of ours to play Division I football, and so getting to play together is such a cool experience,” said Gunner. “There’s always that brotherly competitiveness that you have, and it really drives both of us to be better.”
