BUTLER TWP— Seated in the Butler High School gym cheering on his alma mater's basketball team Tuesday night, Nate Hartung wore a Notre Dame baseball cap.

Will the former Golden Tornado center-nose tackle be donning a Fighting Irish football uniform next fall?

"Nah," Hartung said with a broad grin. "I'm just a fan.

"But I'll be playing Division I football somewhere. That's been my dream and I'm following it through."

Even if it means waiting well past the early February national letter of intent signing day.

"I'll wait as long as it takes,"Hartung declared.

The 6-foot-2, 400-pound Hartung has not played football since the 2004 season. He graduated from Butler in 2005 and left to serve a two-year Mormon mission in New Zealand a few months later.

He returned from that mission in September weighing 440 pounds.

"I ate a lot and staying in shape was not my focus there," Hartung said.

Since returning to Butler, he's followed a strict diet and has stayed on a grueling training regimen at Butler County Community College. He's trimmed his weight to 385 and wants to get down to 350 pounds.

"Now, staying in shape is my focus," he said.

Hartung's always carried an infectious personality with his big frame. Home less than a week, he showed up at an Elizabeth Forward football practice — where former Butler coach Garry Cathell coaches now — in September and spoke with theplayers.

"He was like the Pied Piper all over again,"Cathell said. "Nate looked great. No doubt in my mind he's a Division I football player.

"Teams know about him. Everybody's trying to get him to walk on and earn a scholarship. Maybe that's the way he'll have to go eventually, but Nate has a plan. And that would only be Plan B or C."

Plan A is to get a scholarship before he reports to camp. Hartung has visited Pitt and West Virginia. He's planning a visit to the University of Iowa as well.

WVU has been the only team looking at him as a defensive player.

Temple, Syracuse, West Virginia, Kent State and Akron all offered Hartung scholarships before his senior year at Butler, but his mission was main priority in his life then.

Because Hartung fulfilled a religious endeavor before entering college, he still has full football eligibility.

"I know Pitt has a need at my position (center) and I'd love to go there, but they haven't stepped up and offered yet,"Hartung said. "I haven't received that big offer from anybody yet."

Cathell said that former Pitt recruiting coordinator and current director of football relations Bob Junko wants Hartung to walk on.

"He called me the other night asking me to steer Nate in that direction,"Cathell said.

Numerous PSACDivision IIschools and some Division I-AAprograms have approached Hartung as well.

"They all tell me the same thing. Show up and we'll give you the scholarship,"Hartung said. "I don't want to sound arrogant, but I want Division I. I want to challenge myself and go up against the best."

He faced the best in the Big 33 game — Pennsylvania's all-star football game — as a center in the spring of 2005 and recorded pancake blocks against defensive tackles now playing in the Big East and Big Ten.

"Nate's still on everybody's radar because of that game,"Cathell said. "If he does have to walk on someplace, he'll be given a scholarship quickly once coaches see him on the practice field, knocking full- scholarship guys on their butts.

"Nate reminds me a lot of (Steelers nose tackle)Casey Hampton in the way he's built. And I'll guarantee you he's stronger than Casey Hampton."

When and where Hartung gets on a practice field is anybody's guess. He's still unsure of what course of study he's going to take in school.

"I'm in no rush," he said. "I know I have to prove two things. One is that I can play at the size I'm at. Two, that I can still play after being off two years."