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Always viewed as undersized and underestimated, Austin Ekeler went from hidden star at a Division II Colorado school to a growing star with the Chargers.(Photo by Kirk Irwin / The Associated Press; Photo illustration by Tim Hubbard / Los Angeles Times)

How a need to succeed fueled Austin Ekeler’s Rocky Mountain climb to the NFL

He arrived as the underdog — undrafted but hardly unloved by the Chargers — facing odds nearly as tall as he was, well, not so tall.

Back then, approaching six years ago now, Austin Ekeler was 5 foot 8 5/8.

Today, the Chargers list him at 5-10.

He’s still 5-8 5/8.

But nearly 7,000 yards, 59 touchdowns and countless celebratory strums of an imaginary guitar later, Ekeler’s height matters little compared to the long shadow cast by his heart.

A running back who can be so difficult to wrap up that even Ekeler’s drive has a stiff-arm, defensive coordinators NFL-wide are now forced to acknowledge a player every Power Five college ignored.

“All the stuff everyone’s seeing him do today,” said Jas Bains, Ekeler’s coach at Division II Western State, “he’s been doing since high school.”

The Chargers’ Austin Ekeler, known for his physical running, drags Tennessee defenders as he gains extra yardage.(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Undersized and underestimated, Ekeler possesses a desire too large to be confined to a huddle, a want to succeed — no, a need to succeed — that’s impressive among even the most obsessed athletes on earth.

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One way to express drive in football is by finishing plays. No one in the NFL has finished more plays in the end zone over the last two seasons than Ekeler.

His hunger runs so deep it once showed itself in perhaps the most graphic way possible.

As a rookie, his chiseled frame was stuffed with potential and nerves, so many nerves that after Ekeler stepped into his first huddle of his first practice in his first offseason session with the Chargers, he had to step back out — so he could throw up.

Suzanne Ekeler played small-college basketball in Colorado. She had post moves and a nickname. They called her “The Animal.”

“Apparently,” Ekeler said of his mother, “she was a maniac out there.”

Suzanne raised her two sons mostly on her own. Ekeler has never met his biological father, a man who was out of his life before Ekeler