Football isn’t the only thing that stokes their competitive fires, however.
“We’re competitive at a lot of things: video games, girls, what not,” Daron said.
The two are seldom seen apart, and when they came to UK, they naturally chose to room together.
“Why not? We like the same things anyway,” Daron said. “We both like the same video games and everything. We have the same group of friends. It’s very rare we do something separate.”
Their video game battles are legendary, with each claiming to be the best before Daron grudgingly gave an inch.
“When it comes to ‘Call of Duty,’ he’s better. At ‘Halo,’ I’m better,” he said.
Their competitions even extend to fishing, a sport the two got serious about in high school.
“We used to fish when we were little with our dad and our grandfather, but we didn’t get serious until our freshman year of high school,” Zack said.
“One of our (teammates) in high school who transferred in, he’s a big fisherman, and we tried fishing with him and just started liking it,” Daron added.
So who’s better with a rod and reel?
“Me,” Zack piped up.
“He gets lucky. I’m a better fisherman,” Daron answered.
They got to try their luck recently in the pond behind coach Joker Phillips’ Lakewood home, but only one of them caught a fish.
“We went to coach Phillips’ house the other day and I caught a carp,” Zack said.
“Carp are easy to catch,” Daron shot back. “It’s the bass and the trout that count.”