Slowly but surely, sophomore running back Tyronne Gross is getting exactly what he wants.

He’s got that jersey with No. 21 smoothly and flawlessly ironed on the back of it – the same jersey he couldn’t have last year.

The same jersey number his father, Tyronne Gross Sr., and uncle, Jerome Gross, wore as players at Edison high school in Stockton, Calif.

He’s got the starting running back position that they said he couldn’t have last year – giving him a season full of frustration and an offseason full of tumultuous workouts.

He fulfilled his life-long dream of playing himself on a video game — the Hornets are featured in EA Sports NCAA 2004 — Sac State has the national championship and is 56-0 on Gross’ Playstation 2.

He’s got the loudest cheering section at Fred Anderson Field on Saturday nights, a section full of family and friends clad in forest green t-shirts with No. 21’s posted on the back.

The Gross family even got a congratulatory thank you from University President Alexander Gonzalez, who stopped by to say hello after Gross rushed for 240 yards and one touchdown in Sacramento State’s 47-21 victory over Div I – AA No. 12 Idaho State.

So what doesn’t Tyronne Gross have?

A 1,000 yard–plus season and the Big Sky Conference rushing crown — yet.Gross, who’s averaging 135 yards per game, has seven games left to get the 460 yards that will get him to the 1,000-yard mark. Right now he’s second in the conference, trailing Weber State’s Nick Chournos, who has rushed for a total of 649 yards in five games this season.

At 5-foot-8, Gross, the conference’s shortest starting running back, can make defenders look silly — not clown with a big red nose silly, but slipping and falling down a flight of stairs in front of your prom date silly.

“I don’t look at (my height) as a disadvantage,” Gross said. “If I was a coach I would want a small back because it is harder to see a small back.”

It is hard to see Gross. The pile may keep moving four or five yards after Gross initially runs into the defensive wall. Immersed in a crowd of defenders his legs keep churning and defenders keep finding their feet inexplicably going backward.

Idaho State had the best defense in the Big Sky last season, but on Saturday the Bengals fell to their knees, dove to the sidelines and at times were forced to watch helplessly as No. 21 lit them up for 274 total yards.

“Just because I’m carrying the ball doesn’t mean I can’t hit anybody,” Gross said. “If he’s coming at me I’m going to hit him instead of him hitting me. Then I have a chance of getting away from that tackle.”

Ironically Gross wasn’t given the opportunity to pound would-be tacklers in 2002. He was sitting on the bench with a sore ankle — watching from the sidelines for the first time since he was an 8-year-old playing defensive line for the South Stockton Vikings.

“I told myself I don’t ever want to be in that position again,” Gross said “There is nothing wrong with it, but me personally, I don’t feel that I can help the team by being on the bench and not on the field.”

This season Gross has four touchdowns — just one short of his 2002 total. With a sub-par year last season it is understandable why Gross was surprised this summer to hear that The Sports Network had named him the best new running back in Div. I — AA.

“I was very honored and shocked,” Gross said. “Maybe they were out there watching me — the little bit I did last year maybe put a sparkle in someone’s eye. Now I just have to prove that what they said is right and become the best in the country.”

Best in the country? First Gross has to become the best at Sac State. After Saturday’s game, the same young man that used to direct choir productions in his church is now the fifth Hornet in school history to rush for over 200 yards. The ninth best performance in school history shattered his old career-best performance of 151 rushing yards.

All from a guy who started only one game last year.

In the offseason Gross hit the gym and worked with new running backs coach Craig Young, all in an effort to avoid the bench.

“He worked real hard,” Gross’ grandfather Al Gross said. “He has always been the guy where the talent just took over — but he put on the pounds this season and got faster.”

Coming out of high school in 2001 — with titles such as San Joaquin Athletic Association Back of the Year, all-area MVP and second team all-state — Gross had only Fresno State and Sac State to choose from.

In a concerted effort to stay close to home and keep his grandmother’s siren-cranking streak alive — Tyronne chose to become a Hornet.

Gross’ parents and grandparents have attended every game since he was playing with the Vikings and at every game his grandmother has rigorously turned the crank on her blaring siren as Tyronne crossed into the endzone — until Saturday that is. The siren has been a constant at football games in the Gross family since his father and uncle played in high school.

The NCAA outlaws all artificial noisemakers, so in the fourth quarter when Gross broke free for a 45-yard touchdown his grandmother had to settle for yelling in the grandstands — her hand was crank-free and a tradition was broken.

“I did notice that,” Gross said of the siren-less game. “My grandma was pretty upset because ever since I was a little kid and every time I scored a touchdown … she rings her siren. They told her she couldn’t bring it again, I’ll have to talk to the coaches about that one.

Okay, so maybe Tyronne Gross doesn’t have everything he wants… yet.