Standing on the deck of a charter boat in the Florida Keys, gazing into the deep blue sea with a fishing pole cradled in his hands life gets no better than this for Kansas University linebacker Greg Cole.

“I love to fish, man. I love deep-sea fishing,” says Cole, a senior from Miami. “It’s just like football. You get a rush. Your heart is beating. It’s intense, highly intense.

“You don’t hit, but your pole is getting hit. I’m getting excited now just talking about fishing,” added Cole, who contracted up to four charter boats a day at $40 per trip during a visit home last summer. “It (charter boat) comes in after three or four hours and goes right back out.”

Fishing morning, noon and night, Cole has caught barracuda. He’s caught gray snapper, mutton snapper and grouper.

He definitely has some tall fishing tales to tell.

“I caught this tarpon once. I almost came off the side of the boat and fell in the water. That’s my best fishing memory,” Cole said.

There’s also the time the 6-foot-2, 225-pounder who ranks eighth in the Big 12 in tackles per game (9.4), second in tackles for loss (9 1/2) and sixth in sacks (3) caught an eight-foot black-tipped shark while angling off a dock at Isle Marada in Key West, Fla., using mullet as bait.

“It hit hard. I didn’t know what it was. It took me almost an hour to pull it in. I was pulling it in by hand, using a spoon,” Cole explained of the hand-held line used instead of a rod and reel. “I had gloves on. I guess I just tired it out. We finally got it up off the dock.

“I really didn’t want to touch it. This guy I was fishing with, he was the one pulling it up. It just wanted to get back in the water,” noted Cole, who gave the shark its freedom.

Cole his favorite fishing partner is his stepdad, Aaron Farrington has resisted any urges to fish in the Lawrence area.

“I’ve never even tried to go fishing around here. In Hutch I went fishing once,” said Cole, a former Hutchinson Community College standout. “What is it, widemouth bass?

“They give you a little hit, but it’s not like the big fish in the ocean.”

While football is mighty important to Cole “I’m always about to cry if we lose,” he said it’s not everything, as his love of fishing, acting and dancing would attest.

“Being from the suburbs of Miami, a lot of great players come out of there. I’d watch TV seeing Deion (Sanders) dance, and all the pros dance,” said Cole, nicknamed “Hollywood” during his junior high days. “I’d always get a flag dancing on the field.”

Seeing her son was a natural ham, Cole’s mother, Lavoris, “always kept me busy in talent shows or oratorical contests, reciting poems, singing in the choir at church,” Cole said. “In a play, I’d always be the star character so they started calling me ‘Hollywood.’

“I had a hip hop dance group from junior high through high school. We called it ‘Showtime’ then changed it to ‘Kool-Aid Pack.”’

Cole, who is hoping to copy Sanders with a long career in the NFL, has been known to dance at clubs in Miami and in Lawrence.

“Most of the guys in Miami if you dance, you are kind of soft,” he said. “You see mostly little kids dancing these days. I can still bust a move every now and then.

“I don’t have time during the season. During the offseason, I get out there and I shake a little bit.”

Cole has done a fine job shaking opposing ballcarriers in his final collegiate season.

“He has a great desire to play this game,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “It’s probably a lousy clichbut he leaves it out on the field. When the game’s over, he’s about crawling to the locker room. He plays on several special teams units. He hardly ever gets a rest on defense. He goes hard on every single play. He’s a special guy.

“He’s a great leader for our football team. He wants our defense to be better. He came to me and said, ‘Coach, what can I do to make our defense better?’ I said, ‘You’re a great example. Just keep doing what you’re doing and everybody else will follow.'”

Cole downplays his role of leader.

“I love football and I want to win,” he said. “If anybody knows me, when I’m on the sideline I’m fussing, cussing. I’m mad. If things don’t go right I don’t get down. I get mad and take it out on the field. My mom tries to calm me down. She is always telling me it’s a game, but I take losing like somebody died or something. I take it to heart. I only want to win.”