Around the ND Universe 8/2/07

Some things you know, some things you may have missed and "I Don't Know Butchie, Instead:"

Some things you know:

• Notre Dame junior forward Luke Zeller is off playing with Athletes In Action for the second straight summer, this time in Australia. His hometown paper in Washington, Ind., caught up with the former McDonald's All-American before he left town.
• Irish safety Tom Zbikowski's charity will donate money to the Chicago Park District to help underprivileged kids to get boxing lessons.

Some things you may have missed:

• Marcus Freeman was a reserve tight end for Notre Dame last year. Now, he's trying to latch on with the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL. The Baltimore Sun caught up with Freeman, who helped start the first fight of the Ravens' training camp.
• The blog L.A. Observed discussed Notre Dame's continuous signing of Southern California quarterbacks.

"I Don't Know Butchie, Instead:"

• Even though he's struggled through most of the year, former Notre Dame wide receiver Jeff Samardzija was promoted to Double-A West Tennessee yesterday. This is an important step in Samardzija's career because often how a player performs at the Class AA level determines whether or not he'll be in the major leagues. Whether or not Samardzija made a good decision could start to shake out over the next month. Samardzija wrote about it in his blog (linked above), and said that former Irish baseball coach Paul Mainieri took in his start Wednesday night.
• Guess who's starting in the CFL? Former Notre Dame quarterback Jarious Jackson, who took a most circuitous route to becoming a professional starting quarterback. Well, that time is here and with Brady Quinn still holding out, Jackson becomes the only quarterback from Notre Dame starting as a professional QB. He also, of all the quarterbacks Notre Dame has produced recently, is the most unlikely.

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette