Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

Dalyn Dawkins was 5 years old and playing football for the first time.

His father, Ralph Dawkins, had his son, who weighed less than 50 pounds, line up across from an 8-year-old who weighed more than 100 pounds.

It was flag football, with full-contact blocking.

“The kid mauled him, threw him around,” Ralph said. “(The other coaches) thought I was crazy. So Dalyn popped up, and I said. ‘You ready to go again?’

“He said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to hit him this time.’”

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That’s the essence of Dawkins, easily the smallest player on CSU’s football team. And quite possibly the toughest.

He’s smaller than the wide receivers and defensive backs. Even the kickers.

Without his cleats on, he's a good 2 inches shorter than his listed height of 5-foot-9. And he’s proud of the additional weight he’s put on this year to get to 180 pounds.

You’d never know it, though, by the way he plays.

Put a football in his hand, and Dalyn will dart fearlessly between 300-pound tackles and lower his shoulder while plowing into 240-pound linebackers.

He doesn’t always win those battles. But he always bounces right back up, eager to do it all over again.

“I like to bring energy to the team and show that I’m fearless,” Dalyn said. “I won’t back down from nothing.”

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It’s not just talk. It’s how he was made.

His uncle, hard-hitting NFL safety Brian Dawkins, was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection while playing for the Philadelphia Eagles (1996-2008) and Denver Broncos (2009-11). His father was an undersized running back who led the University of Louisville in rushing three times in four seasons (1990, 1991 and 1993), receiving twice (1991 and 1992) and scoring once (1992) with 10 touchdowns.

Football, and the toughness it requires, are “in the Dawkins’ blood,” Dalyn said.

Dalyn averaged an impressive 5.1 yards a carry for Colorado State University last fall, leading the team with 867 yards and two touchdowns on 170 carries despite a balky hamstring. He added another 178 yards and one touchdown on 24 pass receptions.

And he’s cut from the same mold as his father.

It's why Ralph started working early on with the eldest of his three sons to develop the skills that would make him a successful college football player, maybe even a professional. Ralph spent three seasons on the New Orleans Saints roster, two on injured reserve with a torn ACL, but never played in a regular-season game.

Because of his size, 5-8 and 195 pounds, Ralph was typecast as a third-down back, he said, and never given the chance to showcase his ability to run inside and break tackles. Dalyn is the same type of runner as his father, Ralph said, but faster, with 4.3-second speed in the 40-yard dash compared to Ralph’s 4.5-second speed.

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“The NFL is in between the tackles, man, and I was sitting here watching guys who were getting the opportunity and they weren’t running in between the tackles, they kept bouncing it out,” Ralph said. “It was curdling my blood, because they wouldn’t give me a shot to do it.

“So I said, man, this can’t happen to my son if he wants to be a running back.”

And Dalyn always wanted to be a running back. By his own admission, he wasn’t very good as an 8-year-old, showing far more proclivity as an overly aggressive cornerback. Over the next few years, he worked on all the skills his father said he would need to improve to be a running back — pass blocking, catching passes out of the backfield, running at pad level in order to deliver a blow, rather than receive one. He learned to make one cut and go. He improved his speed.

“That boy doesn’t have a weakness in his game other than size,” Ralph said.

The tough little running back put up big numbers at Trinity High School in Louisville, helping the team win a mythical national championship in 2011, as determined by Sports Illustrated and Rivals.com, while rushing for 1,750 yards and 25 touchdowns as a junior. He added 1,479 yards and 18 touchdowns his senior year, earning scholarship offers from CSU and five other schools, including Illinois and Cincinnati.

He chose Purdue, just a 3-hour drive from home. But one year, with 115 yards on 32 carries, in the Boilermakers’ pass-happy offense convinced him to come to Fort Collins where Jim McElwain, a close family friend during his time as a Louisville assistant, was beginning his third season as the Rams' coach.

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Dalyn had to sit out the 2014 season, McElwain’s last at CSU, under NCAA transfer rules. But new coach Mike Bobo ran a lot of live drills in practice the following spring.

He was an instant hit, showing a toughness as both a runner and blocker that teammates and Bobo haven’t stopped talking about ever since.

“He’s a stud. He’s a football player,” Bobo said.

Teammates get fired up every time Dalyn touches the ball, knowing he’s capable of breaking a tackle or two and reaching the end zone from anywhere on the field at any time.

He might be the littlest guy on the field, but “he runs like he’s the biggest,” junior quarterback Nick Stevens said. “He runs with tenacity. He’s probably the hardest-running running back I’ve ever seen.”

Dalyn’s mentality is no different now than it was when he was that 5-year-old, getting back up to take on the big kid again.

“It’s an honor that people notice my toughness,” Dalyn said. “Sometimes I’m not even aware of it. I watch myself on film, and I’m like, ‘Wow, dang. I just did that.

“It’s second nature.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news