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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Mike Lorello was anxious with anticipation. He was ready to bolt that instant, if not sooner. He could wait no longer to go for his prize. Everybody watching knew the target.

The quarterback? No, Cabela's.

This was the Friday before last, when West Virginia coaches dismissed players for the weekend because Hurricane Wilma had postponed the South Florida game. Lorello, the Mountaineers' senior bandit safety, defensive leader and aggressive conscience, was named the Big East's defensive player of the week before with 11 tackles, three pass breakups and an interception. Yet he got rewarded monetarily for achieving another number Oct. 15 against Louisville -- his 22nd birthday. So his parents, Ray and Linda of Worthington, Ohio, gave him a gift certificate to buy equipment for his favorite sport.

Football? No, fishing.

"He couldn't get anybody to go with him," recalled roommate and buddy for four years, Jay Henry.

So, Lorello drove by himself to the outdoors store in Wheeling, W,Va., an hour and 15 minute trip one way. Henry stays with him just about everywhere else, though: apartment, fishing trips, classes, practices, meetings, games such as Connecticut-West Virginia on ESPN2 tomorrow night at Mountaineer Field. There, Henry will line up at middle linebacker and Lorello, for his team-high 33rd time, will be at the bandit position that is equal parts linebacker and safety, not to mention the sum of Lorello's football parts. Yet, this time, Lorello was raring to bull-rush the prey -- new waders, boots and vest at the Wheeling store.

Lorello got roommates Henry, center Dan Mozes and backup defensive back Aaron Meckstroth out the next day, at a favorite fishing hole 45 minutes from campus. Wouldn't you know, Henry -- the Oklahoman who had hardly fished until Lorello took him home to the Columbus, Ohio, area -- landed the biggest catch, a 2-pound smallmouth bass.

"He's pretty excited about that stuff," Henry said.

From angling to angles on ballcarriers, from fishing tackle to 47 total tackles this season and 225 for his career, from fly fishing to batting passes, Lorello seems to be a natural in the outdoors. It's his background. His father has taken him fishing "since he was old enough to walk." The son broadened his athletic horizons in football-mad central Ohio by becoming ... a soccer goalkeeper? He was a member of a Select youth team that traveled as far as Texas, Florida and South Carolina to play and a high school team that won five state titles in succession.

Then his sophomore year at Worthington-Kilbourne High, the meniscus in his knee was torn and he suddenly decided to go in different directions. He quit soccer and became a man for all seasons -- except baseball, which he tried as a kid and found, the father added, "there wasn't enough action." He tried lacrosse, started as a midfielder, and "he had never picked up a lacrosse stick before," Ray Lorello recalled. He played basketball. He played football, in which he found a kindred sport.

"Mike liked the contact," Ray Lorello added.

By the time he graduated, Lorello was all-state in football, a member of the National Honor Society and Socratic Society and winner of Junior Book Award. His recruiting finalists included Northwestern, Duke and West Virginia. He came in Henry's recruiting class but started as a true freshman in 2002 and hasn't budged since his sophomore year. This season for the 18th-ranked Mountaineers (6-1, 3-0 Big East), he is tied with lineman Keilen Dykes for the team lead in sacks. His three interceptions, three forced fumbles and five pass breakups also are tops on the team or tied for it. He's the second-leading tackler (47) and second-leading Mountaineer in tackles for losses (five for a team-high minus-27 yards), behind only linebacker Boo McLee.

"I always refer to him as an overachiever," safety coach Bruce Tall said of Lorello, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound safety. "He came here and made himself a Division-I player."

Pro football? No, pro fishing.

NFL agents have called, his father said, but the young man's passion is baiting a line as much, if not more than, baiting a quarterback. "He'd rather play it than watch it," Ray Lorello said.

Added Henry: "It seems like he doesn't really know football. He knows how to play football, but as far as other teams and the pros ..."

He might yet earn his master's degree in finance and economics, then be left with a decision: Pursue the business world, a career in fishing or a career in the game that he prefers to sleep through on Sundays rather than watch.