L.C. can craft whatever he wants to craft, but Irons is better than both AJ and Patterson. He is bigger and more explosive than AJ, he is just as fast as Paterson, but bigger and explosive. Both AJ and Daz would have been stopped on that 44 yard run. Irons ran like Marshawn Lynch. L.C is is denial and time will definitely tell. He said in his analysis that AJ and Daz are better in short spaced, no way my money is on Irons to break the tackles. The coaches are loyal to their guys and hopefully you can teach and old dog new tricks or else we will waste away.

Where did you get the idea that anyone doesn't like Daz?

By all accounts, he's a fine student-athlete. And anyone can see that he's markedly improved this year. Markedly.

But I think that you are way off base about Daz and the NFL. And, without any regard to personal like or dislike, Irons appears worlds more talented better than Daz.

Give Daz and Irons the exact same running circumstances (including line play) and I've about no doubt that Irons will far outperform.

There've been complaints this year about DUTM for a reason.

I think we've reached points at which we disagree, and where we aren't likely to agree. Here's how I see the various backs:
1. Daz is a very good all-around back, with no particular weaknesses. He has good power, good acceleration, good speed, good balance, good elusiveness, he's a good receiver and he's a very good blocker. Built low to the ground, he has good leverage when running inside. He may not be the best ever at any one skill, but all around he has no weaknesses.
2. AJ is a very powerful back who is deceptively fast, and an excellent north-south runner. He's not usually going to break the big run, but he's always going to get yards, and once in awhile he'll burst through the line for a big gain. He's also a good receiver, and an outstanding blocker. In an I formation, I want this guy as my fullback.
3. White - doesn't have a lot of power but has incredible speed and elusiveness, and he's an outstanding receiver. He's also a decent blocker.
4. Irons - Is the best on the team at reading blocks and finding lanes, and has outstanding balance, making him hard to tackle. You can't knock him down, you need to tackle him. He's also a good receiver, and has very good speed. He's also got some question marks in his skill set. He seems runs with a high pad height, so in traffic, when there is no running room, he's not able to move the pile. If he can't find a lane, he won't get much. I also have questions about his blocking. I've never actually seen him attempt a block, so I don't know how well he blocks. In a one back set, the back needs to be able to block, though.
5. Brown - Seems to be a good all around back, like a bigger Daz. He doesn't excel in any one area, but he's not bad in any area. He does need to improve his blocking, though. In the BG game I saw him miss a couple blocks, at least one of which resulted in a sack. He was trying hard, though, so I'm sure that he'll improve in the area of blocking.

For me to be convinced that Irons should move ahead of Daz or AJ he needs to convince me of two things. The first is that he can get the tough yards inside. The second is that he can block well. I expect we'll see more of him against Kent State, and maybe he'll demonstrate both abilities to me, in which case I'll join you. In the absence of that, though, I see him as a situational back who can do some great things if used properly.

As I said, Irons still has things to prove to me, and I told you very specifically what those things are. I know he can carry the ball in the open field, but that is far from the only thing that a back has to do. Before I call for him to be the top back he needs to prove to me that he can get the tough yards inside, and he needs to prove that he can block. I will be watching for these two things against Kent State:
1. On inside runs, when there isn't a lot of room, what I do want to see is for him to continue to drive forward, and move the pile. What I don't want see is for him, with his high pad height, to get stood up and stopped for little to no gain.
2. On pass plays, sometimes he'll be sent out as a receiver, but the rest of the time he'll be expected to stay in and protect the QB, and pick up blitzes. I've never seen him block, so I can't comment on how good he is at it.

You can watch for these things, too, and comment after the game on whether you think he passed my test. If he can't do both, he still can be used as a situational back, though not as a full time back.

By the way, I'm ready for him to be used full time for other things. I'd like to see him back with Daz returning kickoffs. That would be an excellent use for his open field running ability.

To clarify my remarks above, I didn't say that Irons can't block. I simply said that I personally haven't seen him block yet, so I want to see it to have a better idea how complete his game is.

I suspect that in this statement you will proven to be not wrong. ;-)

Still the 4th RB in the game.