Dalyn Dawkins may not be a big back, but he plays with the heart of a lion. Dawkins, a redshirt sophomore running back for the Colorado State Rams football team, sounds small at 5’9” and 180 pounds, but he carries a load behind him.
“Pound for pound he’s probably the most physical guy on our football team,” Rams head coach Mike Bobo said of Dawkins following the team’s scrimmage Saturday at Dove Valley in front of Rams Club members and season ticket holders.
“He has no fear. He runs explosively. He’s got a home run hit ability,” Bobo continued about Dawkins. “And then he’s doing a nice job in the passing game in protection and getting out on routes. We just gotta get him to slow down a little bit. He’s a little bit out of control at times. But, he has no fear. If you’ve got no fear, you can play.”
Fans who were in attendance saw Dawkins out of control on a fumble when trying to secure a handoff from quarterback Nick Stevens early on in the scrimmage. But the Purdue transfer bounced back from the fumble and delighted everyone in attendance with his speed and that lack of fear.
On two different occasions, Dawkins took a pass out of the backfield and turned it into a big gain. On one of those catches, he ran away from linebackers and finished it off by lowering his shoulder into the defensive back rather than sneaking out of bounds untouched. The offensive unit on the sideline in which the hit happened went wild, oohing and ahhing the collision. Dawkins jumped up off the turf and ran to the huddle, as if it announce, “I want more.”
He did well running the ball, too. On one read-option, Dawkins used solid vision and footwork to bounce around a would-be tackler and gain yards. Sure, it was only a scrimmage and it’s only April, but this kid showed the kind of spark that Colorado State needs at the running back position, especially after losing Kapri Bibbs and Dee Hart in consecutive seasons. Dawkins finished the scrimmage with five rushes for 33 yards and two receptions for 47 more.
“He’s really strong running the ball and also out of the backfield,” redshirt sophomore Nick Stevens, the favorite to win the Rams’ starting quarterback spot, said of Dawkins. “You know that if you throw him the ball he’s probably going to catch it and do something with it. He’s really quick, really jukey. He can make 3-4 guys miss per play.
“He had a couple (runs) he finished,” Stevens continued about Dawkins’ toughness. “The whole offensive sideline was all, ‘Ooh!’ It was nice.”
Maybe part of the reason Dawkins loves to finish runs with hits is that he’s the nephew of former NFL safety Brian Dawkins, one of the hardest-hitting safeties in recent memory in the NFL. No doubt, he’s got that football background, toughness is in his blood and fans should be excited for what he could bring to the Rams this season and beyond.
With senior Jasen Oden Jr. sidelined for the rest of spring ball — he was injured late in that scrimmage, Saturday — and fellow senior back Treyous Jarrells sitting due to a minor injury as well, this may be the perfect time for Dawkins to shine.
