Two Irons in the fire

The Irons brothers have their act down so well that they don’t need to be in the same room to play it perfectly.

David Irons, the older brother, the cornerback with the motor mouth, loves nothing more than making fun of Kenny Irons, the younger brother, the running back with the slightly less outspoken personality.

David’s target? His brother’s looks. Kenny’s target? His brother’s game.

“He’s probably not the prettiest guy in the world,” David said, comparing his brother to the pit bull they share at their townhouse. “I keep them downstairs because they’re both ugly. … In a cage.”

The younger brother has his return of serve ready to go.

“He’s mad because he’s not the running back he wanted to be,” Kenny said. “He had to move to defense.”

Regardless, the brothers have made Auburn look a lot prettier – on offense and defense. David is only 11 months older, and thanks to a medical redshirt both he and Kenny are playing their senior seasons with NFL scouts following their every move as they prepare to host Washington State Saturday night.

Kenny Irons is expected to be a Heisman Trophy candidate for the No. 4 Tigers at running back, and David Irons is regarded as one of the nation’s best at his position in the secondary as well. So their head coach must have nothing but good things to say, right?

“Two clowns,” Tommy Tuberville said. “It’s always a circus when you get around those two.

“They’re very competitive when they get close to each other. They try to out-talk each other.”

Sincerity isn’t as difficult to come by this season, however. Both David and Kenny realize that unless something bizarre happens at the NFL draft next spring, this will be the last season they get to play as teammates.

“It’s been a blast. We’re just enjoying every moment,” David said. “We can come out there on the field and be competitive. I pick him up and he picks me up.”

Of course, even their futures in the NFL provide fodder for taking shots at one another. Growing up in New Jersey and then Georgia together, the Irons brothers were always teammates and have never had to face each other before. And when that happens …

“I want to beat him, to run him over,” Kenny said. “I’ll just get him and run him over, knock him off his block.”

A few years ago, though, it would have seemed that the two would have been on opposite sidelines much sooner.

David wasn’t an academic qualifier coming out of high school and had to go to junior college in Kansas before making his way to Auburn. Kenny started out at South Carolina, where he played as a freshman before enduring a well-publicized fallout with then-coach Lou Holtz.

Eventually, both transferred to Auburn, and they are a big reason why the Tigers are entertaining national title dreams this year.

“I don’t know why he went to South Carolina in the first place,” David said. “Now he’s back with me, and he’s on top.”

There’s nothing ugly about that.