His legal guardian plays college football.

"My friends think that is really cool," Anthony says.

Utah running back Antoine "Shaky" Smithson — Anthony's older brother and, since summer, his guardian — has greater responsibilities than merely trying to beat No. 4 TCU, the No. 14 Utes' opponent Saturday.

Shaky is his brother's keeper. They live together in an apartment in Salt Lake City. Shaky cooks for Anthony, helps him with his homework and makes sure he gets to bed on time.

That's a lot for a man of 22 and a boy of 15.

"It's not as hard as everybody thinks," Shaky says. "He makes it easy for me. He's loving it, and I'm loving it. That's where my heart is."

The Smithson brothers are from one of the toughest sections of Baltimore. They describe growing up in a neighborhood of guns and gangs, where crime cameras atop streetlights cannot stem the tide of drugs and death.

"Out here, there's just a lot more good people who want to help," Anthony says. "At home, it's like — I don't know how to explain it — it's just not a good environment to raise a family."

Shaky puts it more bluntly: "A lot of people don't get out alive."

Shaky got out thanks to sports, where his shake-and-bake moves earned the nickname he prefers to Antoine. He was a football and basketball star at Frederick Douglass High in Baltimore and appeared in the 2008 HBO documentary Hard Times at Douglass High, which portrayed the school as a place where, too often, unqualified teachers teach uninterested students.

Shaky graduated and moved far from home, enrolling to play football at East Los Angeles College. That's when he got the idea of bringing Anthony with him.

Utah recruited Shaky, and he wanted Utah as much as it wanted him, partly because it seemed like a good place for his brother. Shaky got his associate's degree in three semesters. That's how he could enroll at Utah last January and begin the process of bringing Anthony west soon after.

First he had to convince his new coach it was a good idea.

"Very few players would be ready to take this on," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham says. "But he is mature beyond his years. He experienced a lot growing up."

Then Shaky needed a waiver from the NCAA so he could accept financial contributions from church groups. Normally, athletes cannot accept extra benefits.

"We fully understand that the rules cannot possibly cover every real-life situation," NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said by e-mail. "If there is a special circumstance, like this case," waivers can be requested. Shaky's is the fourth granted since 2006.

Shaky and Anthony also needed the OK of their mother, Lori Smith Smithson, a hotel housekeeper. "Antoine asked me, and I just knew he could handle it," she says. "It was destined."

Lori has five other children. Tamicka, 18, is a freshman at the University of Maryland. Briana, 16; Toni, 11; Brittany, 7; and Antonio, 5, are still at home. Shaky says he has dreams of helping his other siblings some day.

Lori is separated from Tony Smithson, the children's father. "He always supports us, but he lost his job as a construction worker," Shaky says. "He has been in and out of prison. ... He is a good man who did some bad things in society's eyes."

Shaky began the season as a reserve wide receiver (nine catches, 56 yards) and is now a reserve running back (10 carries, 48 yards) and kick returner (11 returns, 259 yards). He missed two games with an ankle injury.

Saturday's game at 9-0 TCU looms large for Utah (8-1). Each team is 5-0 in the Mountain West. "We're going to collide," Shaky says. "It's going to be a great game."

Still, some things are bigger than even the biggest of big games. "A lot of people in this world don't get a chance like this," Shaky says. He doesn't mean beating TCU.

Enlarge By Michael Brandy, (Salt Lake City) Deseret News Anthony "Shaky" Smithson, left, and his brother, Anthony, play a video game in their Salt Lake City apartment. Shaky, 22, brought his 15-year-old brother west from Baltimore and watches over him as legal guardian.