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Fine Fina Fits
9/2/2025 7:05:00 AM | Football
Brothers Bruno and Roman Fina Bring Strong Pedigree to O-Line
DURHAM, N.C. - It is refreshing, in this age of NIL, collectives and transfer portals, to find examples of true student-athletes in major college sports. Duke left tackle Bruno Fina is one of many Blue Devils who fits that description perfectly.
On the academic side, Fina graduated from UCLA in June 2024 with a degree in business economics. Last year he added a master's in management studies from Duke's Fuqua School of Business, and now he is pursuing a master's in business administration from Fuqua. He was one of only five players from the ACC to be named as an Academic All-America last year and is a National Football Foundation (NFF) Hampshire Honor Society member. At UCLA he was named All-District Academic and was a two-time member of the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll.
Last season on the football field, the 6-foot-5, 300-pounder from Tucson, Arizona was a key member of the Duke offensive line. He was part of a unit that ranked second in the ACC and tied for eighth nationally in fewest sacks allowed per game (0.92) while providing pass protection for Maalik Murphy to throw for a Duke single-season record 26 touchdowns. He was part of a line that did not yield a sack in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl to an Ole Miss team that led the nation in sacks.
Prior to Duke, in his four years at UCLA (2020-21-22-23) he was a two-year letterwinner. He helped the Bruins lead the Pac-12 in rushing yardage, 197.9 yards per game in 2023, while playing in three bowl games.
Fina is also in the last group of covid year players, as this will be his sixth year of competition at the collegiate level. His extensive experience features 31 games played with 25 starts, including 12 of the Blue Devils' 13 games last year. He logged 835 snaps during his first Duke campaign.
"The last of the Mohicans, that's me," he laughed. "It was a weird situation my freshman year (at UCLA). It was the only time when coaches were encouraging you not to spend time with your teammates. To not hang out with people. That was difficult as a first-year student. Obviously, you don't get your normal first-year experience. You're not going to any parties or meeting new people. You know that stuff has come in time. It just didn't start out like that."
Fina played high school ball at Salpointe Catholic in Tucson and had several collegiate offers, ultimately picking UCLA for its great mix of academics and athletics. He came into UCLA as a skinny 230-pound kid and left as a starting tackle tipping the scales at 300 pounds.
Following graduation he wanted to continue to play and continue his academic career as well. Duke looked like the perfect spot for him.
"Great fit," he explained. "The MMS degrees are fantastic and help to set me up with so many connections down the road. Coach Diaz has a special approach with players. Coaches talk about the mental game, but it just feels like he understands it on another level. Every team meeting, every one-on-one meeting, he is speaking very, very, closely to what's like in your heart. He just has a talent for that."
Now, heading into his final season at the collegiate level, Bruno is being joined on the team by his younger brother Roman, a true freshman offensive lineman.
"It's great," said Bruno, who also has two sisters Mimi and Stella . "The last five years I've only seen him for like a week or two at a time. It's great now to get to watch him develop as a player and be around him every day."
Roman is also glad to have the opportunity to be around his older brother, on and off the field.
"One of the reasons I came to Duke was the fact that I'd be able to play with my brother, which is just an experience that I've never had," he explained. "He knows his game very well; he's had a great deal more experience in football and life than I've had. He's been on the college football stage for six years now, so he knows a thing or two, which is a great resource for me. I love him too, which is great. It's great to be able to spend time with him going to restaurants, just hanging out."
And of course, the older Fina is going to give his younger brother tips and insights into playing on the offensive line for the Blue Devils.
"I try to coach him as much as I can without being overbearing," Bruno explained. "It's easy to fall into a lot of pitfalls when you're a freshman. I just have an eye for when he's out on the field. Just naturally care more and I think it has helped me spread that to other freshmen who deserve attention from all the older players."
The Fina brothers grew up around football. Their father John played for 11 years in the NFL as an offensive lineman.
He played his collegiate career at the University of Arizona, 1989-90-91, playing both sides of the line while earning second team All-Pac-10 honors and team captain recognition in 1991. Not surprisingly, he also was a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic Team honoree. He was a first-round selection of the Buffalo Bills with the 27th pick overall in the 1992 NFL Draft and spent his first 10 seasons with the Bills before returning home to play for the Arizona Cardinals his final year of 2002. Overall Fina started in 131 of his 155 games in the NFL and participated in two Super Bowls before induction into the University of Arizona Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
Like most parents, John and Melissa Fina are very proud of the achievements of their sons on and off the field. John has tried to pass along some insider knowledge from his long career playing in the trenches.
"Your job as a lineman is to be smart at the right time," he explained. "You don't have to pancake the guy every time to win the play. You must create leverage, understand the philosophy of the play. I wasn't the biggest guy on the field when I played, so I had to play with my brain and my athleticism. You can always have those things, but at some point, there's always going to be somebody bigger. There's always going to be somebody that you can beat with technique, but you can't beat with strength, so you might as well get your technique right. So we've taught technique from the first moment they ever stepped on the field."
"Obviously he had a great wealth of knowledge," said Bruno. "I could come home every day and ask him questions when things didn't make sense and I knew I could always trust him. When days were hard and I felt like I was falling behind, I could always go to him. He would say, 'I had these exact same days. I had these exact same doubts.' And we would figure it out."
"Growing up he never really pushed me to play football," explained Roman. "I played baseball and basketball, and I always knew I'd try football in my freshman year. And of course I did, and I came in not knowing much, or at least not having many skills because I'd never played before. But having my dad on the field with me — he was one of the assistant offensive line coaches on my high school team — was just incredibly helpful. I could ask him questions at home about plays that I didn't understand quite yet. And you know, on the field, of course he was there. A familiar face to look to. An extra sense of trust for me as a coach and a father."
For Bruno, he now has a great combination of academics, football and family for his final collegiate season. Last year's nine-win season showed him and others just how good this Duke football program is and can continue to be. He is extremely optimistic heading into the 2025 season.
"I think we all expect great things from this team," he said. "We should definitely grow this year as a team. We have the talent, we just have to go out and perform well. It's time to take all that talent and experience and put it out on the field."
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On the academic side, Fina graduated from UCLA in June 2024 with a degree in business economics. Last year he added a master's in management studies from Duke's Fuqua School of Business, and now he is pursuing a master's in business administration from Fuqua. He was one of only five players from the ACC to be named as an Academic All-America last year and is a National Football Foundation (NFF) Hampshire Honor Society member. At UCLA he was named All-District Academic and was a two-time member of the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll.
Last season on the football field, the 6-foot-5, 300-pounder from Tucson, Arizona was a key member of the Duke offensive line. He was part of a unit that ranked second in the ACC and tied for eighth nationally in fewest sacks allowed per game (0.92) while providing pass protection for Maalik Murphy to throw for a Duke single-season record 26 touchdowns. He was part of a line that did not yield a sack in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl to an Ole Miss team that led the nation in sacks.
Prior to Duke, in his four years at UCLA (2020-21-22-23) he was a two-year letterwinner. He helped the Bruins lead the Pac-12 in rushing yardage, 197.9 yards per game in 2023, while playing in three bowl games.
Fina is also in the last group of covid year players, as this will be his sixth year of competition at the collegiate level. His extensive experience features 31 games played with 25 starts, including 12 of the Blue Devils' 13 games last year. He logged 835 snaps during his first Duke campaign.
"The last of the Mohicans, that's me," he laughed. "It was a weird situation my freshman year (at UCLA). It was the only time when coaches were encouraging you not to spend time with your teammates. To not hang out with people. That was difficult as a first-year student. Obviously, you don't get your normal first-year experience. You're not going to any parties or meeting new people. You know that stuff has come in time. It just didn't start out like that."
Fina played high school ball at Salpointe Catholic in Tucson and had several collegiate offers, ultimately picking UCLA for its great mix of academics and athletics. He came into UCLA as a skinny 230-pound kid and left as a starting tackle tipping the scales at 300 pounds.
Following graduation he wanted to continue to play and continue his academic career as well. Duke looked like the perfect spot for him.
"Great fit," he explained. "The MMS degrees are fantastic and help to set me up with so many connections down the road. Coach Diaz has a special approach with players. Coaches talk about the mental game, but it just feels like he understands it on another level. Every team meeting, every one-on-one meeting, he is speaking very, very, closely to what's like in your heart. He just has a talent for that."
Now, heading into his final season at the collegiate level, Bruno is being joined on the team by his younger brother Roman, a true freshman offensive lineman.
"It's great," said Bruno, who also has two sisters Mimi and Stella . "The last five years I've only seen him for like a week or two at a time. It's great now to get to watch him develop as a player and be around him every day."
Roman is also glad to have the opportunity to be around his older brother, on and off the field.
"One of the reasons I came to Duke was the fact that I'd be able to play with my brother, which is just an experience that I've never had," he explained. "He knows his game very well; he's had a great deal more experience in football and life than I've had. He's been on the college football stage for six years now, so he knows a thing or two, which is a great resource for me. I love him too, which is great. It's great to be able to spend time with him going to restaurants, just hanging out."
And of course, the older Fina is going to give his younger brother tips and insights into playing on the offensive line for the Blue Devils.
"I try to coach him as much as I can without being overbearing," Bruno explained. "It's easy to fall into a lot of pitfalls when you're a freshman. I just have an eye for when he's out on the field. Just naturally care more and I think it has helped me spread that to other freshmen who deserve attention from all the older players."
The Fina brothers grew up around football. Their father John played for 11 years in the NFL as an offensive lineman.
He played his collegiate career at the University of Arizona, 1989-90-91, playing both sides of the line while earning second team All-Pac-10 honors and team captain recognition in 1991. Not surprisingly, he also was a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic Team honoree. He was a first-round selection of the Buffalo Bills with the 27th pick overall in the 1992 NFL Draft and spent his first 10 seasons with the Bills before returning home to play for the Arizona Cardinals his final year of 2002. Overall Fina started in 131 of his 155 games in the NFL and participated in two Super Bowls before induction into the University of Arizona Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
Like most parents, John and Melissa Fina are very proud of the achievements of their sons on and off the field. John has tried to pass along some insider knowledge from his long career playing in the trenches.
"Your job as a lineman is to be smart at the right time," he explained. "You don't have to pancake the guy every time to win the play. You must create leverage, understand the philosophy of the play. I wasn't the biggest guy on the field when I played, so I had to play with my brain and my athleticism. You can always have those things, but at some point, there's always going to be somebody bigger. There's always going to be somebody that you can beat with technique, but you can't beat with strength, so you might as well get your technique right. So we've taught technique from the first moment they ever stepped on the field."
"Obviously he had a great wealth of knowledge," said Bruno. "I could come home every day and ask him questions when things didn't make sense and I knew I could always trust him. When days were hard and I felt like I was falling behind, I could always go to him. He would say, 'I had these exact same days. I had these exact same doubts.' And we would figure it out."
"Growing up he never really pushed me to play football," explained Roman. "I played baseball and basketball, and I always knew I'd try football in my freshman year. And of course I did, and I came in not knowing much, or at least not having many skills because I'd never played before. But having my dad on the field with me — he was one of the assistant offensive line coaches on my high school team — was just incredibly helpful. I could ask him questions at home about plays that I didn't understand quite yet. And you know, on the field, of course he was there. A familiar face to look to. An extra sense of trust for me as a coach and a father."
For Bruno, he now has a great combination of academics, football and family for his final collegiate season. Last year's nine-win season showed him and others just how good this Duke football program is and can continue to be. He is extremely optimistic heading into the 2025 season.
"I think we all expect great things from this team," he said. "We should definitely grow this year as a team. We have the talent, we just have to go out and perform well. It's time to take all that talent and experience and put it out on the field."
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