He is one, but Mike Banks doesn’t want to be called “The Hunter.”

It’s been done by another newspaper.

He doesn’t mind his given name. As in “Mike Banks? Wouldn’t trade him for any tight end in the nation,” as ISU head coach Dan McCarney won’t hesitate to say at any press conference, struggling only to get the words out quick enough.

He loves his moniker, “The Manimal.”

“It started in media relations because I just try to kill guys when I’m on the field,” Banks swoons.

All this hunting and killing and half-beast, half-man stuff started in Noblesville, Indiana, fifteen minutes outside of Indianapolis, when Banks was in junior high.

The community of nearly 50,000 had a Pop Warner-esque football draft for their pubescent sons.

Banks was drafted by the worst team. He was bigger than everyone. He played running back. He dominated the league. His team finished second.

“It was a big confidence booster,” Banks said.

Halfway through his eighth grade year, his family moved back to Iowa.

Not to Fort Dodge, where they were before Indiana football, but to Ogden.

“Nothing to do but go outside and shoot something,” Banks said, referring to the pheasants and deer, game he enjoys killing to this day.

So Banks hunted and played football.

As a sophomore he started at linebacker, playing for a coach who started seniors.

He returned to the backfield his senior year, starting at wingback while continuing to smash people as a linebacker.

“Offense was something I just loved doing,” Banks says with an accent slightly southern, though no past home of his confirms it.

Mike Woodley, Iowa State’s tight end coach, recruited Banks.

“I knew I was somebody he wanted here,” Banks says.

At what position was the question.

The day before two-a-days began Banks’ freshman year, John Skladany, the defensive coordinator, gave him a white practice jersey, the jersey of the defense.

Banks showed Woodley.

“Hell no. You take that back,” Woodley said. “Go get yourself a red jersey.”

Banks grabbed one. He’s been a tight end ever since.

“He’s really turned me into the player I am,” Banks says of Woodley.

And who is that?

Well, Banks himself will tell you he’s one of the best tight ends in the nation.

“That ain’t being cocky. That’s just being confident,” he says.

And in the Big 12, “I’m the best . as an all around tight end.”

It’s because of his goals that he became so. Last year, he wanted to make all-Big 12. He made Honorable Mention.

“Some things are political,” he says. The newspapers pick the guys with big stats.

Banks has yet to catch a touchdown pass.

“The coaches are the ones that gave me honorable mention,” he says.

Coaches like Banks’ blocking ability. He favors catching to blocking only slightly.

“I take pride in beating guys on defense,” he says, by whatever means necessary.

This year, Banks is a team captain. A go-to guy on a relatively young team.

“They’re trying to get me the ball a little more,” he says.

Maybe the first receiving touchdown isn’t far off.