 "Photo: Trent Barnes")
Texas Tech senior safety Daniel Charbonnet used to flood his parents with text messages and phone calls to check the status of his little brother's high school football games.
Nowadays, checking on his brother, freshman cornerback Taylor Charbonnet, will not be so hard.
With Taylor Charbonnet no longer a redshirt, the pair has played together for the first time in their respective careers through recent spring practices.
"Not many people get to experience that and go to college with their brother, and be on the same team," Daniel Charbonnet said. "(We are) definitely blessed."
The age difference never allowed the pair to play on the same team in high school, so their mom, Sheila Charbonnet said it is an enjoyment to watch their careers coexist.
"We feel so blessed because we know a lot people who would love to have one child play in Division 1 college football," she said. "Having four boys, we've been through lots of football and have lots of friends who have kids playing football. So to have two on the same team, playing at a school like this, it's a lot of fun, and it's a huge blessing."
Taylor Charbonnet probably never would have committed to Tech if it weren't for his brother, who transferred from Duke in 2005, indirectly persuading his younger brother to attend the university.
Of course, Daniel Charbonnet still has the big brother mentality, so he said he tries to help out as much as possible on the field, dropping in some words of wisdom from time to time.
"He knows that I'm just doing it to try to help him out," Daniel said. "Not to criticize him, just trying to give him some help because I've been through it and I've made a lot of the dumb mistakes."
Daniel Charbonnet, who is expected to receive a lot of snaps this season, finished 2007-08 with 31 tackles, one sack and a forced fumble.
Safeties coach Carlos Mainord said Daniel Charbonnet should see playing time this year because of the experience and work ethic he brings to the secondary.
"He's progressed well," Mainord said. "He's been here long enough that he really knows the system. He's a smart guy, and he really knows coverages, he studies receivers. He's just gotten better ever since he's been here, and it showed this spring."
Taylor Charbonnet is fighting for playing time opposite starting cornerback Jamar Wall, and most likely will not see a whole lot of action this season. However, more playing time could be in his future.
"I feel like I've gotten better every day," Taylor Charbonnet said. "It's just been trying to take advantage of every opportunity I get, and try to learn the scheme and the defense and everything, so I can just do it naturally."
Now they are side by side working together to build the Tech secondary, the comparisons can be drawn with ease.
Their personalities take to the field, and for Daniel Charbonnet, the difference is quite apparent.
"I would say he's competitive but I was always the more competitive one," he said. "He was always more laid back. He probably had more raw talent than me, so I probably needed to be more competitive in everything. I'm a little tenser, more high-strung."
Like most safeties, Taylor Charbonnet said his brother is the more aggressive hitter, while he would rather chop the legs out from a ball carrier.
"He's more of a mix between a corner and a safety," Taylor Charbonnet said. "Everyone always says I'm a true corner. He's kind of a hybrid corner, and I can just play corner. That's about it."
The two stay competitive with each other in other areas, such as ping-pong and video games, which has resulted in Daniel Charbonnet showing a side often seen.
"Video games, oh my gosh," Daniel Charbonnet said. "I've thrown a lot of controllers, that's for sure. That's just the competitiveness, it would get me in trouble with my mom."
In pingpong, Daniel Charbonnet said a scorekeeper would have been nice to have around.
"We'd try to keep track of who had the most wins," he said, "but one of us was wrong, because I think I did, and he thinks he did."
Daniel Charbonnet remembers the times he continuously could beat his little brother in a race, but those days are long gone, now that Taylor Charbonnet runs a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash.
"He's a little faster than me," Daniel Charbonnet said. "Not a lot, but a little. He's faster, I'll admit that."
Daniel Charbonnet said up until late in high school, none of his younger brothers could beat him in anything, but once they got a taste of winning, they wanted more.
"It was really frustrating," Daniel Charbonnet said. "Especially the speed thing, because we used to race all the time and I would smoke them. Then one day I came home from college, and he had me beat."
With brothers Todd Walker and Grant Walker, as well as Brent Nickerson and Trent Nickerson on the team, Daniel Charbonnet said they all joke about an unofficial brothers club.
Although Grant Walker graduated already, receiver Todd Walker said the special club was something he enjoyed being a part of.
"It's always good to play with your brother, because it makes practice a lot more fun, the games more fun, traveling more fun," he said. "It's definitely going to be a change without him here. I played with him in high school, played with him in college."
There also is a history and tradition of football that runs through the Charbonnet family. The brothers' grandfather played at LSU, and their uncle played at Northeastern (La.) State.
Taylor Charbonnet said his grandfather taught him and his brothers the game of football whenever they would visit his house in Louisiana, where they would watch old videos of men in leather helmets.
"I wish he was here to see us," Taylor Charbonnet said. "He would be real proud. He would always come down to our games in high school and stuff. It's an honor to play in college like he did."
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