With the NFL draft this weekend -- set your TV stations to either ESPN or the NFL Network for the two day analysis-fest -- Insights figured it'd be as good a time as any to catch up with some of the Notre Dame players who may hear their names called -- or least will try to sign free agent deals starting Sunday evening -- this weekend. Former linebacker Maurice Crum Jr. was the heart of Notre Dame's defense the past two seasons and was third on the Irish in tackles with 65 in 2008. He had 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, two forced fumbles, two quarterback hurries and one bowl victory.

Now, he's been bouncing between his hometown of Tampa, Fla. and South Bend getting ready for this weekend.

As for where he'll be during the draft -- he won't be near a television. He'll be in New York participating in a fundraiser for Students Bridging the Information Gap, a charity started by Thomas Killian and former Notre Dame linebacker Abdel Banda to help children in Ghana have the necessary tools to learn and communicate. Banda, Crum and Killian all went to Ghana last summer for the dedication ceremony for the first school.

Below, Crum talks charity, chasing

Irish Insights: What's the past few months been like for you?

Maurice Crum Jr.: "It's actually been rather calm. A couple weeks ago, I had a meeting with the Bears and got to sit with them and talk with them and their staff and stuff and learn what they're about and what they wanted to do. Other than that, I've just been running and lifting and staying in shape."

Irish Insights: As the draft approaches, what's your thought process on the thing?

MC: "I'll be in New York, actually, helping a friend with his charity fundraiser for the second time this year. I'll be busy with that, really. I'll have my phone with me still so if someone tries to contact me, I'll be able to take care of that. I want to keep busy."

Irish Insights: I'm assuming the stuff with the charity, it's the same charity you were working with last year? Is this more of a coincidence?

MC: "Yeah. It's more of a coincidence how it happened but I'm not mad about it at all. It's a coincidence that it gave me the opportunity to say I'm not going to watch it. I know if I was sitting at home that the TV was going to be on so I'm going to keep busy."

Irish Insights: So Sunday during the fundraiser, if you got a call, that'd probably help donations a little bit, too?

MC: "I'm sure it would. I'd probably jump up and start screaming and everyone would put their attention on me and I'd have to explain what was going on. It'd be a dream come true for that to happen, something that growing up I always wanted and being so close to it, my dreams finally becoming a reality."

Irish Insights: What teams have you worked out for?

MC: "It's just really been the Bears." (Eds. note: Since Crum and I spoke, he was scheduled to work out for Tampa Bay during a local workout)

Irish Insights: What's the next plan (if you don't get drafted)? Would you do the free agent thing? Would you do something else?

MC: "I'd go free agent, just from talking with my coaches and people who know football, most of them seem to think that for whatever reason I didn't get the recognition or whatever but most of them think I'm good enough to play at the next level so I believe I can play at the next level. I'll just have to go a different route and whatever happens happens. As long as I get a chance to prove myself and have an opportunity, that's all I can ask for. If it doesn't work out that way, then I'll move on but I am going to 100 percent pursue football."

Irish Insights: After the season was over, were you somewhat surprised you weren't invited to the NFL combine considering the career you had?

MC: "I was a little shocked by that, that I didn't get an invite, that I didn't get a chance to attend. I was just shocked. I guess I wasn't supposed to be there, I just don't know. It's one of those things you can't really explain but you have to accept it and move on.

Irish Insights: When you see that, is that a reality check for you?

MC: "No, not really. It's a lot of things that go on that I never really understood and I just put it in that category."

Irish Insights: When you're talking to teams, what do you say to them to sell yourself?

MC: "For one, I tell them that as far as being on the field, that I eventually become an extension of the coaching staff on the field through leadership and being a smart player and getting the system down and helping other players on the field to know if they don't know what they are doing, our chances on the field to be successful become that much greater. I feel like I can bring that to a team and lastly, I'm a team player. I love football and just love to play the game nad be around a team. You don't have to worry any issues or problems with me and whatever team I'm with, I'll give 110 percent."

Irish Insights: I don't know how much you've thought about the past few years, but if you've thought about how your career went, team record-wise, do you think a lot about that still?

MC: "Nah, not really. I feel like if I look back at my career, I don't really look at the record. I look at the moments. That's what I think about when I think about my career overall."

Irish Insights: What moments stand out for you, both positively and negatively?

MC: "The moment that sticks out to me was when we lost to Navy. It was two overtimes, three overtimes or something. That's probably the moment that sticks with me the most. The happiest moment would be against UCLA. So my lowest of lows and highest of highs came in the same season."

Irish Insights: I understand the highest of highs as the highest moment (Crum was named national defensive player of the week after that game) but why did you say the Navy game as the lowest of lows moment?

MC: "Uh, just because going through the whole week and up to the game, I believed with thing in me that we were going to win that game. I felt like I played my hardest and did everything I could and when I graded out, I graded out at like a 90 so I was pretty close to playing a perfect game and we didn't win. I felt like I wanted to do more. But that was startling a little bit, that I couldn't do anything else to put us in position. I'm sure I could have done more but I just tried so hard and when you don't get the outcome that's desired, it just hurts."

Irish Insights: When you look at the trajectory of winning and losing, how much did you pull from the first two years versus the last two years, with all the NFL-type players you were playing with the first two years versus the last two years?

MC: "It's real hard because earlier there were a lot of older and those guys were already NFL-ready guys when I started to play with those guys. They knew what it took to be successful and they knew how to practice and get themselves ready so I was able to learn from the right people. Those guys were plentiful versus my last two years when the senior class was a lot smaller and the class under me, a lot of those guys hadn't really played. So the examples were few, I guess you could say, for the younger guys."

"…To me, those are the differences between those years."

Irish Insights: Was it weird for you almost that when you were still learning as a player, you were having a lot more success and then especially if you look at that junior year, you had a really good year, the team wasn't playing as well. Do you ever wonder why that is?

MC: "That stuff, that's part of a career, the unexplainable I guess I will call it, when things happen or things go certain ways and you just don't understand, like what-if, like what you think about and what scenarios you come up with. But the outcome is what it is and you can't put your finger on why that is."

Irish Insights: Looking at the charity, Students Bridging the Information Gap, how's that gone this year versus last year (the first year)?

MC: "Last year was a little easier because the first year, everyone is trying to figure everything out and how things are going to work, what's the structure, things like that. This year, though, there's a little bit more of a challenge because you always want to do a little bit better than the year before, especially with the whole structure and whatnot, you know how things are supposed to be or you know how you want things to be."

Irish Insights: Has it been tough, being on the fundraising end of it, with the economy, too?

MC: "That's what we're thinking. But we're not really sure because the first fundraiser this year is coming up on April 24. So we will how tough it is or will be. Hopefully not too bad. We really think we structured the organization with proper timing and what we presented based on what we did last year."

Irish Insights: When you look at your football career, at least on the college level, that you got every ounce of it? When you left, did you feel good about what you did?

MC: "Yeah, I did. But, to me, it's funny because I'm like a perfectionist so I just, there's always stuff I wish I could go back and do better but overall, I'd take it any day of the week."

Irish Insights: When you say you'd take it any day of the week, that you ended on a positive note, does that help you as well?

MC: "Absolutely. My last game ever playing in that uniform was a win, the bowl streak was broken. I got to stand on stage and hold a trophy. That's a good way to close a book."

Irish Insights: Were there times during your career you thought that might never come?

MC: "Yeah, again, I was prepared that each time it was going to happen and then it doesn't happen and you're like 'Man' and you get older in the program and you're like 'Man, my time is running out.' But, as long as there is air left in the lungs you've got to keep breathing and that's what happened on my last chance."