Inside the improbable football journey of Oklahoma State's Nathan Latu
STILLWATER — Nathan Latu’s college football career is reaching the truest of full-circle moments as he prepares for his final home game as an Oklahoma State Cowboy.
That game, set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday, will be against Brigham Young University.
BYU was the first program to offer a scholarship to Latu and his twin brother, Cameron, when they were at Olympus High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.
BYU was where the Latu brothers committed when they were just sophomores.
BYU was where Nathan believed he was destined to play out his college football life — until a few twists in the road sent him down a far different and more challenging path.
Eight years after receiving that scholarship offer, and six years after remarkably reviving his football career, Nathan Latu and the 20th-ranked Cowboys will face BYU for Senior Day at Boone Pickens Stadium with hopes of earning a berth in the Big 12 Championship Game.
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Yet how Latu got here — or how he got himself on a college football field at all — is a rather improbable tale.
After those BYU scholarship offers, Cameron continued to flourish on the field, drawing interest from even bigger programs. But in the latter years of high school, Nathan’s path diverted because of a brief period of what he described as poor choices and negative influences.
Cameron eventually signed with Alabama, but by that time, Nathan’s academic standing had dropped so far, he couldn’t graduate from high school.
“It was really hard for Nathan,” said Jill Argust, the Latus’ mother. “He started not making great choices, but it was very short-lived.
“But by the time he realized, ‘Hey, I’m messing up my opportunity,’ it was too late.”
Nathan earned his general education development diploma and got a job as a clerk at the Macy’s department store in a Salt Lake City mall, working full time and wondering what was next.
That could’ve been the end of Nathan Latu’s athletic journey, yet with an abundance of family support and a mental reset of his own, it instead turned into the start of a new chapter.
But let’s go back to the beginning.
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From Southern California to Northern Minnesota
The Latu brothers were 3 years old when Argust decided to move herself and her sons — including the boys’ older brother, Sioka — from Lawndale, California, near Torrance, to the tiny town of Chisholm, Minnesota, about four hours north of Minneapolis.
“One of the best things I ever did,” Argust said. “As opposed to California, where I felt like I couldn’t let them out of my sight, they got to go be kids, go ride their bikes, stuff like that.”
Nathan and Cameron don’t remember anything of their SoCal life, but Chisholm was a booming spot for a couple of sports-loving boys.
Football wasn’t big there, but basketball was. Same for baseball, wrestling, track, hockey and curling — yes, curling. And the Latu brothers did it all.
“Curling is huge up there,” Nathan said with a laugh. “I wanted to do it all. It was just stuff to keep us busy and we loved it.”
The small-town atmosphere, plus the abundance of sports made Chisholm almost perfect.
“Everybody knew each other,” Cameron said. “For those 10 years, my friends all lived literally blocks away. We always was outside, always was active. Any sport we could play, winter, spring, fall, summer, we was doing. We were very competitive and we wanted to stay active.
“Our friends would be doing the same thing, so we’d all meet up and have fun.”
The twins’ athletic skills were obvious early, but their lives took another turn in 2013 when Argust moved her boys to Salt Lake City.
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“That’s where Nathan got introduced to rugby,” she said. “And he fell in love. He was very, very good at it. He was just a natural.”
They both began playing football, and that’s where Cameron found his passion. But for Nathan, football was a way to pass time in the fall until rugby season returned the next spring.
Thanks to his size and natural physicality, Nathan was a starter on the varsity team as a high school freshman.
“It was my favorite sport,” Nathan said. “If they handed out scholarships for rugby like they do football, I’d be playing rugby.”
Cameron wrestled in the winter and was a thrower on the track team in the spring. Every year, he’d tell his mom he wasn’t going to play rugby, but he’d eventually change his mind and join in.
“I was more dialed into football and had more fun, I guess, and Nathan was just drawn to rugby and how free that was, running around, no shoulder pads,” Cameron said. “And he was very good at it.
“He was always faster than me, stronger than me, so he played the positions that got the ball more. He would score more and made it look natural.”
The opportunities provided by football were too much to ignore. The BYU offers were monumental, because they saw the potential to play college athletics, and they committed rather hastily because of that excitement.
But as more offers came, they had to re-evaluate their plans.
Cameron landed at Alabama, where he ultimately developed into one of the top tight ends in the country. Last spring, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, though a torn meniscus ended his rookie year during the preseason.
Yet while Cameron was learning the game from Nick Saban in the summer of 2019, Nathan was folding clothes and running the register at Macy’s.
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Returning to football
During those 9-to-5 shifts at Macy’s, Nathan contemplated a future rife with uncertainty.
His uncle, Sam Vaitai, had a connection at Snow College, a school with a renowned junior college football program located a couple hours south of Salt Lake City.
The coaches at Snow, headed by former Oklahoma State player Andrew Mitchell, were aware of Nathan’s talent, and Vaitai helped orchestrate a meeting for Nathan with Mitchell.
“He believed in me,” Nathan said of Vaitai. “He’s a huge part of my journey. He took the initiative of talking to Andrew Mitchell and telling him about me.”
Nathan showed up to Mitchell’s office with nothing but his GED, a big body and a reputation as a talented player, and Mitchell gave him a scholarship. Nathan enrolled a couple days before classes began in August 2019.
That moment redirected all of Nathan’s energy.
“Being given a chance like that, I knew I couldn’t let that down,” he said.
After his first season as a defensive end at Snow, Nathan — then measuring 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds — began to draw low-level Division I offers. After his second season, the offers grew, including one from UNLV in November 2020.
A few weeks later, on Dec. 11, 2020, OSU extended a scholarship. He committed that day and signed his letter of intent less than a week after.
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Over three seasons in Stillwater, Nathan has grown physically, adding more than 30 pounds of muscle, and he has developed as a player, seeing his on-field role increase year after year.
He has played in 28 games over those three seasons, compiling 38 tackles, with 9.5 for loss and 6.0 sacks.
And he’s nearing the end of his Cowboy journey, with one home game, followed by what he hopes is a Big 12 Championship game and a bowl. Then he’ll get his chance to test his worth at the NFL level.
“I can’t get over the fact that it’s my last BPS home game,” Nathan said. “It’s hitting me pretty hard.
“I’m a guy that’s always in my thoughts. I think about how I got to where I am today. I wouldn’t be the man I am without everybody around me. … I give credit to this team, for sure, but my family, they’re my rock, my stone, my foundation.”
Cameron has never attended one of Nathan’s college games, because he’s always had his own games. But that changes Saturday.
Cameron will be on the field with Nathan and their mother for the pregame Senior Day ceremony, and after having a front-row seat for Nathan’s unique journey, Cameron couldn’t be more proud.
“You have no idea,” Cameron said, his voice becoming emboldened with passion. “It’s the perfect example of how perseverance is shown. NFL coaches, general managers, owners, this is the kind of stuff they’re looking for. Guys that never quit, that they see what they’re doing wrong and they actually change and sacrifice to get something.
“That’s not something you do on the field, that’s your character. NFL coaches are looking for those guys that built their way up from the bottom by grinding and working hard and believing in their damn selves. And that’s what he’s doing. That’s why I believe in him.”
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Cameron is the younger brother by 2 minutes, and whether or not Nathan reminds him of it, their brotherly competitions of youth always did.
“He could dunk first,” Cameron said. “He was faster than me, stronger than me. He was an inch taller. I had braces, I had glasses. He had the straight teeth and the 20/20.”
That’s why, now that Cameron has seen the inner workings of the NFL, he believes his brother can make it, too.
“If I can do it, he can do it,” Cameron said. “When it’s times like this, I know he can make it. There’s nobody that believes more than me, because I know him. I know he can do it.”
Though he still has two or three college games left, Nathan occasionally will get caught up in reflecting on the path that got him to this point.
“It’s very emotional,” he said. “It’s been a rollercoaster, but a good one. I was a whole different person back in 2019. I made bad choices to lead up to me being in that position. I had a lot to change.
“I wouldn’t have seen myself in this position. It’s been a crazy journey.”
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
OSU vs. BYU
KICKOFF: 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater (ABC)
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football's Nathan Latu had unlikely journey to Cowboys
