Brotherly love

Kevin Robinson has been outrunning defenders to the end zone since he was a freshman at Utah State. But it wasn’t until this summer that Robinson was able to win a race against a different opponent – his brother, Aggie defensive backs coach John Rushing.

“For the first time, he was finally able to beat me at 35 years old, so I don’t feel too bad,” Rushing said.

“I wonder if he thinks he’s still faster than me,” Robinson said. “I don’t know if he likes that (I beat him). I think he still needs to get in there and start training and we can get back out here and settle it again.”

The competition was a friendly one, but it gets at a bigger question: Who’s the best athlete in the family? Is it Robinson, the nation’s leader in all-purpose yards per game? Or is it Rushing, the two-time All-American at Washington State?

“I think I passed him up on being the better football player,” Robinson said. “He’s probably going to deny it, but secretly, I think he knows I’m better than him now. We may have to fight about that in a couple of weeks, but I think I got him now.

“Depending on who you talk to, pretty much, my family knows I’m better than him. He’ll never let it go and say, ‘(Kevin) is the better athlete out of the family.’ But we all know it’s all me now, taking over.”

“Better offensive player,” Rushing rebutted. “I was a defensive player, and I was a freshman and a sophomore All-American, not just a freshman All-American. So I’ve got more plaques than he’s got.”

The kidding was all in good fun, because when it comes down to it, Rushing – as a brother and an Aggie coach – is happy to see Robinson doing well and playing hard.

“I’m happy he’s succeeding,” Rushing said. “The one thing I’m probably more proud of than anything is that he plays hard every game. That’s kind of something I did as a player and it’s good to see him do the same thing as a player, just come out and compete every week, no matter what the record is or what the situation is, just come out and give it your best every game.”

Since Rushing is in charge of punt returns, he can take part in Robinson’s success. But Rushing said his coaching is more about getting Robinson to follow his blocks and stay within the play than teaching him moves on the field.

“Returning’s always been me,” Robinson said. “I don’t think he can take credit on this one. He may try to say, ‘You need to do this or that.’ But when I’m on the field, he knows I’m going to do me.”

For the most part, Robinson may have punt returns under control, but Rushing said he has been able to help him get a defensive back’s perspective on Robinson the receiver. Rushing said in the off-season and after games, he will give Robinson tips about how to attack a certain cornerback technique or another part of Robinson’s route running.

Despite the help and friendly competition, Robinson said he treats Rushing like a normal coach and feels he’s treated like a regular player.

“I wouldn’t say he’s harder on me, but he does sometimes take out some of his aggression on me,” Robinson said. “You know that’s all love. That’s just him, his style of coaching, so I don’t take it personally, other people may, but like I said, I’ve lived with him.”

The brothers, who are 13 years apart, have lived together as recently as Robinson’s freshman year, but the living arrangement didn’t last longer than that.

“That got old really quick,” Rushing said about their living together. “It was time for him to get on his own, and I kind of wanted him to enjoy the true college experience and not be under my wing the whole time.”

But it may have made sense for the two to share their first year in Logan together. Rushing had just been left Montana State University to coach at USU, and Robinson had left his home in Fresno, Calif., to be an Aggie.

Although they arrived at the same time, Robinson said his choice to come to Utah State had little to do with Rushing’s presence on the staff.

It may have had no part in his younger brother’s decision, but that doesn’t mean Rushing wasn’t recruiting Robinson.

“I’ve kind of been recruiting him his whole life, basically,” Rushing said.

In fact, Robinson was scheduled to make a visit to Montana State the last weekend of recruiting, but when Rushing was hired at Utah State, Robinson decided to visit Logan instead, Rushing said. Robinson’s decision came without any pressure from Rushing, he said, even though Rushing was recruiting his little brother.

The rest is really history, as Rushing has been able to watch Robinson rack up returns, receptions and all-purpose yards. And, barring a minor miracle, Rushing will get to watch his brother surpass Emmett White as Utah State’s all-time leader in career all-purpose yards. Robinson only needs 73 yards to push his total of 5,799 over White’s 5,872-yard mark.

No doubt that moment will be special, but Rushing said the whole experience has been a blessing.

“I kind of missed a lot of his high school, and watching him mature on the football and athletically, and as a person,” he said. “I would come back home from college, or wherever I was at playing, and see him, and he was a lot bigger and a lot faster and all those things. So I got a chance, with both of us coming to Utah State, to see him grow as a freshman to a senior.

“I’ve been lucky that I got to make up some time that we missed growing up.”

-da.bake@aggiemail.usu.edu