Running back Earnest Graham is a pounder, a hard-yards man, probably not big enough at 5-9 to do what he is assigned to do for the Bucs. But this grateful young man of 28 thanks the Lord about every night he has this chance and that he is doing it well enough to pay his family’s - and some friends’ - bills.

The Bucs most often asked him to get the tough three first down yards inside the pile, or outside of it if there’s room there. If there is not, make it, EG, quarterback Jeff Garcia may suggest. Got-to-get-it is a characteristic of this young man of guts and hopes of glory, for his team.

He’s a good one, E.G. is, has no ego.

Bucs running backs coach Art Valero once said of EG, “You could win an awful lot of games with a team full of Earnest Grahams.”

We are calling attention here to a young man who was a star running back at Florida but who went undrafted after his 2003 season, signed by the Bucs, a free agent later but was cut. He had a tough time of it the next three years, moved from here to there, with wife and kid were evicted from their rental property, but he kept football as his goal.

His struggles were not unlike those of his single mom in Naples where he grew up in a hand-to-mouth circumstance until the Bucs in 2007 saw him as part of a runningback committee. There were a bunch of them. None was tougher, determined to make it than Earnest Graham, and this year, Warrick Dunn has joined the competition.

Anyone younger than E.G. says he helped them. Older players want his resolve.

His minister has referred to that part of his persona, like Coach Valero when he said he would take a team full of E.G.s.

They all include his non-complaining attitude. He told all when he was sweating every down, and deep in the Buc depth chart, he told himself to be patient, to listen to the coaches, to do his job, on special teams are as a third string back, to appreciate that he had made the team, the roster.

“I never treated special teams like an insignificant thing.

“I was a third-stringer and I thought I should be treated accordingly. I never was assertive about asking about playing time. I just kept my patience.

Then, E.G. got a break, one created by the most expected of developments. Early last season, Cadillac Williams and Michael Pittman were hurt. Graham substituted for them and rushed for two touchdowns against the Rams the third week of the season. Graham came through, when called to start. The Bucs made the playoffs with E.G. starting 10 games.

By the season’s end, E.G. had set a Bucko record for consecutive games with a touchdown — six.

All this now and the football world before him with a year’s good credentials, and a new house he bought in South Tampa. His mom is there and she said, of his success, “just give him a little bit more” she adds. “No more than what he deserves. Because he’s earned the right to be paid. No more than he deserves. Because he has earned the right to be paid,” his mother told ESPN Internet, which did a thorough piece on Graham.

She can remember the bad times when her boys were growing up in South Florida where one son strayed, but never Earnest. Of him, Cadillac Williams said when he first arrived in Tampa, “we worked out together, and he helped me. He’s a humble guy, a family guy. His attitude rubbed off on me. His rough times, he just kept grinding. This is a league about taking advantage of the moment. That’s a mindset E.G. has,” said Williams. “I couldn’t be happier for him.”

And, folks. Earnest is in precisely the right place at the right time The Buckos need him badly. And he needs their challenge.