When they were kids, Chris and Will Hagerup set up a makeshift tennis court in their driveway and broke out the rackets. When they got older, the brothers moved the match to local courts.

“We were very competitive with that,” younger brother Will Hagerup said.

“He’s a real athletic kid. I always looked up to him in that sense. Whenever he does something, I’ll try to do it better, but he’s a pretty hard target.”

He’ll have another shot at hitting it Saturday, when Will, the punter for the Michigan football team, faces Chris, the punter for the Indiana football team (3:30 p.m., ESPNU).

The meeting is the first between the two on the football field.

Their parents will drive to the game from their home in Whitefish Bay, Wisc., along with a grandmother from Milwaukee who has never seen them play. Their sister, aunts and uncles and other distant relatives will also attend.

“We’ve been talking a lot,” Will said. “Some trash talking, some supportive talking.”

Together they’ll not only celebrate their unusual distinction of being brotherly Big Ten punters, but the fact they stumbled into their roles by accident.

Chris Hagerup, now 6-foot-5 and 203 pounds, was an all-conference quarterback in high school, throwing for 1,100 yards and rushing for 450 more his senior year. He never intended to punt. But during his sophomore year, he admits he grew frustrated with the high school team’s punting. “I just thought to myself, he wasn’t very good,” he said.

Problem solved. Chris Hagerup tried kicking and punting, and won both jobs. By the time he reached his senior year, Scout.com ranked him as the seventh-best punting prospect in the country. Colleges called. Coaches offered scholarships.

Will, a high school freshman at the time, watched it all.

“Just the fact he got a scholarship, I kind of thought there’s a small possibility I could take after him,” he said. “He really kind of led the way.”

Until his freshman year, Will, now 6-4 and 210 pounds, intended to play soccer at Whitefish Bay High School. The week before school started, his brother piqued his curiosity about football instead.

“I wasn’t sure if he was really enjoying soccer,” Chris said. “It was really a really competitive club team, and not that much fun, and a lot of work. I said, ‘Football's so much fun. Soccer is a 20-minute ride away.’ I was able to talk him into it.”

A booming soccer leg made Will a natural at punter, and his older brother’s success put him on the fast track, too.

Although Chris left for Indiana, he came home often enough to share tidbits about punting form and mechanics. When college scouts noticed Will, Chris helped guide him through the recruiting process. “We know each other so well, our problems and our strengths, so it’s easy for us to relate,” said Chris, now a redshirt junior. “We do a lot of talking on the phone or texting and chats, just talk about stuff. ‘Are you taking the two-step or three-step technique?’”

Both brothers say they’ve had their share of struggles early in the 2010 season. Chris is edging his younger brother with a 39.3 yard average compared to Will’s 39.0 average, but both have season-long 53-yard punts.

Will, a true freshman charged with replacing All-American Zoltan Mesko, got off to an up-and-down start. He has boomed three 50-plus-yard punts so far, but dropped a snap against UMass.

Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez isn’t worried.

“I’m convinced he’s going to be phenomenal,” he said.

He didn’t get a chance to recover last week against Bowling Green -- the Michigan offense scored nine touchdowns and he wasn’t needed.

“So far, my performance definitely has not been where I see my potential at,” Will said. “But I’m doing my best to get better during the week.”

He’ll likely get his chance against Indiana, when he’ll renew his competition with his brother. It’s their first official face-off since their days on the tennis courts -- where both say they beat the other. “I told Will that this will be the only game I root against him,” Chris said. “If it means him having a bad punt here or there, then I’m all for that.

“Nah, he knows I’m just joking. … It’s going to be a real good, competitive game, and we’re both really excited about playing each other.”

Pete Bigelow can be reached at (734) 623-2556 or e-mailed at petebigelow@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeterCBigelow.