Keeping Graham Under Wraps Is No Easy Task : Football: Coaches of Mater Dei sophomore are doing a better job than opponents of keeping him under control.

If running back Michael Graham gets as much protection from his offensive line as he does from the coaching staff, Mater Dei’s sophomore sensation could make serious magic with the football this season.

During a recent interview in a conference room of the school’s football offices, assistant freshman coach Al Varisco--one of many wowed by Graham last year--sat in on the session, which Coach Bruce Rollinson explained as “having someone helping him along.”

By early accounts, Graham seems to be holding his own just fine.

In his much-ballyhooed debut Sept. 9 against Servite, Graham had 107 yards in 17 carries in a game he found to be personally second-rate and educational.

“That wasn’t me out there. I should have had 150 yards,” Graham told a reporter after Mater Dei’s 21-0 victory.

Lessons learned were more humbling and ranged from how much harder the players hit to how much quicker the holes are filled on the varsity level.

“I took some hits in that game that woke me up,” he said. “I had to adjust to the holes closing up so fast. As a freshman, they stayed open.”

Graham, 5 feet 9 and 185 pounds, likes to think he took some legitimate hits as a freshman, a notion Varisco dismissed: “He thinks he got hit, but he didn’t, not really. This time, he knew he got hit because the next morning he woke up sore.”

And Servite woke up with hands-on experience of what all the fuss surrounding the newcomer was about.

“He ran at will,” Friar Coach Larry Toner said. “He’s the player he was touted to be. He’s fast and strong, versatile and effective. We thought we had him bottled up a few times, but he broke tackle after tackle. I had heard only about his speed. With it, he’s gone.”

He was during the 1993 track season, when Graham raced against mostly juniors and seniors and won the South Coast League 100- and 200-meter sprints.

“Nothing he did was a shock,” said Karen Frank, Mater Dei’s track coach. “He wasn’t a skinny kid compared to other freshmen.”

It’s easy to imagine what tricks he performed at the freshman football level. Because he was still 14, Graham wasn’t eligible for the varsity. On the freshman squad, where he painfully outclassed peers and opponents, he averaged 20 yards per carry and once gained 200 yards and scored four touchdowns--one on a kickoff return--before halftime.

“He rarely even played the second half,” Varisco marveled.

Because of Graham’s inexperience, Rollinson protects him like a son, frequently engages him in one-on-one conversations and won’t talk up his protegee like the second coming of Emmitt Smith.

“Before he carried the ball, he was being called the next best thing to ice cream,” Rollinson said. “You have to be careful that doesn’t become a distraction to him or to the team and that jealously doesn’t creep in.”

Rollinson is also concerned that Graham will be unfairly labeled if his enthusiasm is mistaken for ego.

“He doesn’t need a bad rap against him,” Rollinson said.

Varisco insists Graham’s smack talk is typical of teen-agers and reserved to his close circle of friends.

“He pops off to them, but he doesn’t do it all around campus,” he said. “When you’re 15 years old, and you’re playing in front of a crowd of up to 15,000 every week, you’re going to feel good about it.”

Graham views the hype as a smile-inducer rather than an ego-booster.

“One guy wrote I should be the best running back in the county this year, but the way he worded it, I thought it was funny. I just try to live up to it,” he said.

It will take a 1,200-yard season--reduced from the 1,500 figure he started with--to live up to his goals. But Graham insists he isn’t crumbling under the weight of anyone’s expectations.

“No pressure,” Graham said before he gave his teammates their just dues. “I’m only as good as my linemen.

“If they do their jobs, I can do mine.”

What helps Graham get the job done in such talked-about fashion is his acceleration out of the backfield, which matches his explosive track starts.

“Out of the blocks he’s impressive. He’s out there in the first 60 yards, and others have to catch up with him after that,” Frank said.

It’s the same for his football opponents, but they often fail to catch him. His speed can demoralize and damage, but it’s his feel for the game that delivers the ultimate blow.

“He has the instincts,” Rollinson said. “He knows where to go. All great running backs can do that. They have a feeling for it.”

There’s no one running back Graham is patterning himself after, but he likes Dallas Cowboy Smith and the University of Washington’s Napoleon Kaufman, although he can’t tell you why.

Graham aspires to play in college--he rates Miami, Michigan and Washington as his universities of choice, in that order but for no particular reason--and eventually the pros. But some coaches hoist red warning flags when they talk about Graham and his future in the sport in the same breath.

“I probably haven’t seen enough running backs at (his) stage to say he reminds me of this or that guy at that stage in his career, but I can say we aren’t looking forward to playing him next year,” Toner said. “He has the talent of four guys, but I don’t have the temerity to say he’ll be a Division I player. I don’t want to put that on his shoulders.”

Varisco goes out on a limb enough to say if he stays focused, he can reach his goals, then admitted Graham often missed freshman practice and would lose interest when he did participate.

“He didn’t always give us 100%,” he said. “He got bored. As he saw it, why did he need to practice?”

With his first taste of varsity football behind him, Graham has begun to see why practice makes perfect and wonders if he’s willing to put in the kind of time that will get him there.

“I could work harder,” he said. “I understand that a lot more now. Every play, I have to give 110%. I know how hard I’ll have to work to make it to college or the pros.”