PISCATAWAY - Rutgers campus was ready to party late into the night on Oct. 18, 2007.

Fans stormed the field to celebrate alongside players after the football team scored the biggest upset win in school history -- beating No. 2 South Florida on a primetime Thursday stage.

Star defensive tackle Pete Tverdov had quieter plans. He took his kid brother -- 11 years younger -- back to his apartment for all-night video games.

"He wound up sleeping over while everyone else was out partying," Tverdov said. "I told him, 'You won't appreciate this now. You'll appreciate this in 15 years.'"

It's only been 10 years, but Mike Tverdov is grateful for the roles that Pete played as a cool older brother, a father figure, a best friend, a football coach and more.

If bonding wasn't done via video games, it happened over yardwork, fishing trips or at church.

Or on Pete's visits home to Union on weekend afternoons -- sometimes with his Rutgers teammates -- to set up trash cans as blockers so that Mike could practice football drills in the driveway.

"That just shows how much he wanted me to be a great player at a young age because he knew the potential I had, especially since we share a bloodline," the younger Tverdov said. "It's all paid off to this day. It's crazy."

Rutgers is the beneficiary of the Tverdov brothers' relationship, as Mike is entering his freshman year at Pete's alma mater. The three-star defensive end -- who will redshirt due to a pre-existing season-ending injury -- held about 15 other offers, including a handful in the Big Ten and ACC.

"In the family room of my old house, we had a whole Rutgers shrine: Bowl rings, tons of pictures, articles, collages," Mike said.

"Everybody who came to my house was like, 'Oh, you must like Rutgers.' That's a credit to my mom being a supportive parent to my brother. It's kind of hard to say no to Rutgers when that's the first thing you see every morning for eight years."

Age is just a number



There is a long history of brother pairings at Rutgers, but few are separated by an age gap as big as the Tverdovs. Sister Christine is the middle child.

The number that mattered more is the hours total Pete set aside for family time.

"It's funny because I know a ton of people who have brothers and sisters a year or two -- maybe three -- apart and they look nothing alike," Mike said. "We're about 11 years apart and we literally look like twins. We stand the same, we talk the same, we walk the same."

They weren't recruited the same, however.

"(Mike) bleeds Rutgers," defensive line coach Shane Burnham said. "No doubt in my mind that he had a lot of suitors, but he wanted to be here

On the other hand, Pete, considered an undersized defensive lineman, didn't have any FBS offers and was set for Fork Union Military Academy until June of his senior year when then-Rutgers coach Greg Schiano spotted him at an awards banquet.

With mostly grit and a high football IQ, Pete became a two-year starter and tackles-for-loss leader from 2005-08 when Rutgers ended a 27-year bowl drought with the first four of five straight postseason berths. It was the same time Rutgers began annually producing NFL draft picks.

"When I think of Rutgers football, I think of when I was a kid," Mike said. "I was basically going to every single home game in the era when we were a Top 10 team. As a kid, I didn't really realize how good Rutgers was. I'm just at a football game. You don't realize how special something is."

As a big part of Mike's recruitment, Pete emphasized comparing schools based on academic standing, post-college networking opportunities and three football staffers: The head coach, strength and conditioning coach and position coach.

The older Tverdov paid for some of the younger's football camps, training and recruiting visits.

"I would go on visits with him and I would ask tough questions," Pete said. "There was one school that led for him a little bit, and when he told me that I couldn't sleep at night. It's not because it wasn't Rutgers. It's because they were blowing so much smoke up his butt."

A season ticketholder who owns a gutted school bus turned into a tailgate van, Pete navigated a slippery slope: Not wanting the undue influence of Mike picking a school to make him happy, but not hiding his feelings for Rutgers.

Especially when he started to see similarities between second-year coach Chris Ash's plan for rebuilding what crumbled under predecessor Kyle Flood and what he experienced under Schiano.

"Mike got offered by the previous regime and I never once encouraged him. I was very quiet," Pete said. "When Ash got hired, I told him, 'This is a legit option. It's not going to be easy. They are going to go through some growing pains and that doesn't get fixed overnight.' But I don't think I pushed him hard in either direction."

Soon enough, Mike became a lead spokesperson -- paraphrasing Pete's message -- for the vaunted 2017 recruiting class, which mostly stuck together as Rutgers finished 2-10 in Ash's debut season. A dozen or more true freshmen could play this fall.

"No matter how nice the facilities were or the depth chart was, or the academics or the campus life, every school I went to I always compared it to Rutgers," Mike said.

"Toward the end of my recruitment, I asked myself, 'Why am I comparing every school to Rutgers?' I talked with my family and they're like, 'That's what you do when you get a home-like feeling.'"

Keeping tradition alive

The Tverdovs are more different off the field -- "He's a much better dresser than me, which isn't saying much," Pete quipped -- than on it. Both love to deliver a punishing hit, especially in the backfield.

"I joke around that when Mike goes to the dining room table," Pete said, "he spins and grabs his fork."

Though he works in finance in New York City, Pete would be a natural coach. Instead he settles for living and dying from the stands with every snap of Rutgers games and Mike's games.

Now that they are one and the same ... "I have to say that I don't want to get my blood pressure up too high," Pete said.

Mike wouldn't have it any other way. The brothers talk every day.

My brother taught me everything I know so I had to do it, it's time to hunt 💯⚔️🔴 pic.twitter.com/eV06T8wXWf — 〽️ I K E (@MikeTverdov97) June 26, 2017

"There are some athletes out there who have an older sibling in professional sports and they don't have the same guidance and advice as I do with my brother," Mike said.

"He constantly tells me the right thing: How you have to treat your body like a temple, how everybody in college does the same amount of work so you have to do more to you get an edge."

So who's the better player as a freshman? Pete or Mike?

"It's an unfair question because I didn't have me," Pete said. "I love the way he plays. He doesn't take crap from everybody. I told coaches 'I think he's going to be a starting strong side end and a team captain.' I believe that."

If nothing else, Mike is ahead in fundamentals because of the emphasis Pete places on it in their 1-on-1 mentoring sessions.

"I'm very proud of him," Pete said. "What he did is not easy. He didn't make excuses for himself. He worked really, really hard -- kind of just like I did."

Or maybe because Pete did.

"Most kids may not realize it, but I've gone through it as a kid and seen my older brother do it," Mike said. "There is really no better feeling than playing for your home state. Especially when you are building something special with the right group of guys."

And if Mike can develop as projected, the Tverdovs might be able to gain bragging rights over the Merrells, the Stapletons, the Westermans and other recent brother tandems at Rutgers.

"We're trying to keep the tradition alive," Mike said.

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.