MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Janeen Floyd gets twice the pleasure out of watching West Virginia University football games.
She's the mother of Darius and
Dante Stills, West Virginia's quarterback-pursuing defensive line duo responsible for six of the team's nine sacks through three games so far this season.
When Darius is not getting to the quarterback, it's usually Dante, who sacked NC State's Matthew McKay twice during last Saturday's 44-27 victory.
On the second one, it was actually a twist Dante did with his older brother, Darius, that allowed him to come free to make a big play.
Big plays are something Mountaineer fans have grown accustomed to seeing from guys named Stills. Their father, Gary Stills, was one of the great edge pass rushers in school history who played on the best defense in school history –
Steve Dunlap's 1996 unit that ranked first in the country in total defense at the end of that season.
"As we started making plays people started recognizing us. It's like, 'Okay, these two might be like their dad used to be' but we're completely different players," Darius explained. "He played more of a Bandit linebacker type. He was a pass rusher and we're more of interior guys. People are beginning to see that we have a little bit of our dad in us but also some Darius and Dante."
"It's 'meet me there, beat me there,'" Dante added.
Dante was the more highly touted of the two coming out of Fairmont Senior High in nearby Fairmont, West Virginia. He had scholarship offers from coast to coast before choosing to play with Darius at WVU.
Darius is a year ahead of Dante, but he has used Dante's great reputation as fuel to become just as productive in college. After all, he can't let his younger brother one-up him.
"Our chemistry when we get on the field it's either, 'You are getting the ball or I am getting the ball.' We are going to race to the ball," Darius explained.
"I can't yell at him and he can't yell at me like I yell at other people on the team," Dante says. "If I yell at him, it's like I can't explain it …"
"It's like, 'Dante, come on now …' People on your own team you can't talk to them like that because they will be like, 'Ah,' Darius added. "We get mad at each other. I will tell Dante, 'shut up. Let me play football.' He will be like, 'Alright.'"
Both of them have found ways to take advantage of the path their father created for them to WVU, but they see him as their father, not as some obscure player Mountaineer fans admire.
"We watched a lot of film from the '98 season and watching him I don't see him as a legend – he's my dad – but to other people it's like a big expectation for us to be like him. But in our eyes he's just our dad like every loving, caring dad," Dante said.
A dad who happened to be a great football player. Darius and Dante have the desire to be great, too.
"It's like Dante, he got one chance and he was freshman All-American here. I got one chance and now I am producing," Darius said. "It's like having a bigger chip on your shoulder than a guy you didn't sleep on and once you get that opportunity you are going to play your best and make plays.
"It's all about how hungry you are," Darius explained.
"It's kind of like building off his legacy and the stuff he did around here," Dante said of his father. "My main goal is to be as good as him or better."
They also want to be good because it means so much to the people from Fairmont.
"It just hits different when you are running out of the tunnel and you see all of those people up in the stands. Everybody you grew up with is watching you play football and watching your journey to get there," Darius said. "They are from Fairmont. 'Okay, these guys came from pee-wee to middle school to high school and they're here now.
"Kids from West Virginia don't get scholarships to play with your brother. There is nothing to compare to that," Darius concluded.
This week's Life of a Mountaineer was produced by
Sean Merinar. Life of a Mountaineer is brought to you each week by Panhandle Cleaning & Restoration.