MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There have been lots of brother tandems in college football through the years, and West Virginia has had a handful during its century-plus history, but rarely do you see brothers play alongside each other.
 
The Saul brothers, Ron and Rich, did it at Michigan State in the late 1960s, and of course, the Pouncey brothers, Mike and Maurkice, starred at Florida for Urban Meyer a decade ago, but the gold standard for brother acts was the Selmon brothers at Oklahoma.
 
"The greatest signing in the history of the University of Oklahoma," former Sooner defensive coordinator Larry Lacewell once called them. "We weren't just signing one, we were signing all three."
 
There was older brother Lucious, middle brother Dewey and baby brother Lee Roy, and all three of them played defensive line for the Sooners in the early-to-mid 1970s.
 
Lucious was a consensus All-American and national defensive player of the year in 1973 before clearing a path for Dewey and Lee Roy in 1974-75. Lee Roy was the first overall player selected in the 1976 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dewey went 59 picks later in the second round to the Buccaneers.
 
These dudes didn't put Oklahoma football on the map, but they made sure college football fans in the 1970s continued to know where Norman, Oklahoma, was.
 
That's what West Virginia brothers Darius and Dante Stills would like to do for their home-state university, even if they are too young to know much about the Selmons.
 
Darius and Dante grew up not too far from Milan Puskar Stadium just down Interstate 79 in Fairmont, West Virginia – the sons of standout former Mountaineer pass rushing specialist Gary Stills and Janeen Floyd - and being near home has always been important to them.
 
Dante listened when the blue bloods such as Oklahoma and Florida tried to recruit him but being at WVU near his mother and older brother was what he wanted to do.
 
"This is my home," he said earlier this spring. "This is where I belong. Going through the recruiting process, it was hard to leave. My family is here. My friends are here – people that have been supporting me my whole life – so I felt like being here was the right choice."
 
Stills, standing 6-feet-4 and weighing a couple of biscuits shy of 300 pounds, has the body and the athleticism that college recruiters crave. He's much bigger than his daddy, a 10-year NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and St. Louis Rams, but his get-off is close to the get-off his father displayed at WVU in the late 1990s playing for Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen.
 
Darius has lots of get-off, too, but his explosiveness comes in a smaller package. He's about three inches shorter than Dante, which is why a lot of college recruiters napped on him. 
 
And don't think for a minute that didn't motivate Darius when the college football coaches showed up at the house specifically to talk to his younger brother.
 
"The reason I'm here today is off of people who didn't think I was good enough to be here," Darius said. "I'm glad for that because I'd rather be slept on than be praised by everybody because I have something to prove.
 
"Yeah, I was upset a lot because I (didn't get a lot of notice) from other schools, but then again, I was happy for my brother too," he added.
 
When Darius committed to West Virginia during Dante's junior season at Fairmont Senior High, the logical thought was that WVU was burning a scholarship on Darius to get Dante to come as well.
 
Then Darius showed up and immediately proved to everybody that size doesn't matter when you've got the heart and desire of a lion. He appeared in nine games as a true freshman in 2017 and clearly demonstrated that he deserved to be on the field because of what he could do for the team, not what he could do to get his younger brother to play for the team.
 
The skeptics have always fueled Darius.
 
"I've been doubted all my life about a lot of stuff, and football was one of the top ones," he said. "I'd go to camps and be one of the best players there and (schools) wouldn't offer me because I wasn't the prototype size, but I got a shot here and I think I've done pretty good so far.
 
"For me, I'd rather have a kid that's a three-star and has the heart of a five-star," Darius continued. "It's all about who you are as a person because some people operate differently."
 
Dante has five-star size and ability and playing right next to his older brother in Vic Koenning's attacking defense could be the right prescription of success for both of them. They appeared in 12 games together last year, the two logging a combined 28 tackles, 10 tackles for losses and four sacks – pretty good numbers for 3-3 stack defensive linemen.
 
But they are no longer playing a defense that requires defensive linemen to eat up space to allow linebackers and safeties to make most of the plays behind them. 
 
Defensive linemen can now get in on the act, too.
 
"It's attack your gap and make plays," Dante said.
 
"I'm the type of guy who likes to get off the ball and go, go, go, and we've now got that freedom," Darius said, adding, "We feed off each other. He makes me right and I make him right."

"It's kind of like me and him know what we're going to do and how we're going to play," Dante remarked. "We've been together since high school. Sometimes during games I don't even pay attention when he's out there. Darius is a dog. He's an animal. He has that mentality of 'I'm going to run through you.' He won't let up."
 
It wasn't until midway through spring practice that defensive line coach Jordan Lesley finally put the Stills brothers out on the field together at the same time.
 
Naturally, it turned out pretty well.
 
"This is the first time I've ever coached brothers," Lesley admitted. "It's a lot of fun. Obviously, you have a bond with them before you even take over the room. What you hope is that they can apply that bond to the other guys."
 
They are. These guys love playing for West Virginia University, and they love representing Fairmont. 
 
And they know many eyes are watching them.
 
"A lot of people back home are rooting for me and Dante so that kind of motivates us to keep doing what we're doing because we don't want to disappoint anyone back home," Darius said.
 
That includes their mother, a breast cancer survivor who took her boys to football camps between treatments when they were still in high school. 
 
They may have gotten their fast-twitch muscle fibers from their father, but the desire DNA comes directly from their mom.
 
"Our family back home has struggled our whole life, and that's the reason we're here today to make sure our family doesn't struggle anymore," Darius said. "One day I'm going to get (my mother) anything she wants.
 
"I'm thankful for all that she's done for us. Without her we wouldn't be here right now."
 
Darius says their goal is to be the top brother tandem in college football about whom everyone talks. Lesley wouldn't have any problem with that.
 
"The fact that those kids come from 15 minutes down the road … that's big," Lesley said. "And I know they're big on this school and a lot of people ask me about those two. I think they're going to have great careers here."
 
Selmon-great might be a little too much to ask, but it's certainly worth shooting for. 
 
It's just something else that Darius can add to the list.