After Saturday, Vince Cartaya is going to have a hole in his schedule big enough for a full-time job.

During football season, the senior linebacker estimates he spends eight to nine hours a day up at the stadium.

But after his final collegiate game this Saturday against Illinois, Cartaya and 10 other Northwestern seniors are going to have to find somewhere else to spend their time.

Cartaya, a linebacker, spent the last four years knocking heads with Big Ten football players, but this winter the secondary teaching major will begin student teaching at a local school. Come spring, he plans to take three classes, finish up his degree and enjoy being a normal student.

“I’m going to try and do all the things I’ve had to trade off for,” Cartaya says. “I want to get involved for the last couple months because I really love this school and I’d like to make some kind of contribution.”

Like Cartaya, wideout Jon Schweighardt has career-oriented plans for this winter. But even though he’ll spend his days interning downtown at Masterplan Group International, a sports marketing firm, he’s going to have spare time for the first time in a long time.

Schweighardt says he’s not exactly sure what he’s going to do with the hours — but he knows what he isn’t going to do.

“I’m not going to sit around and get fat.”

Even so, this will be the 190-pounder’s first chance to pack on some weight. He’ll spend the winter free from the “winning edge” workouts and the spring without football practice.

“It’s going to be different,” Schweighardt says. “I’m used to always having to be someplace. It’s always been, ‘You’ve got to lift, you’ve got to practice.’ Now I’m going to have all this time on my hands. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.”

For those planning on playing football at the next level, there is decidedly less time to kill.

“I think (enjoying time off from football) will last about a week — then I’ll be working out,” center Austin King says.

Pro Football Weekly personnel guru Joel Buchsbaum has placed King in the top handful of senior centers in the country. He is tentatively projected to be a (mid- to late-round pick) in the 2003 NFL Draft.

King, who has six classes to take before he graduates, has not decided where he will train once the season is over. Graduated players can still work out in NU’s athletic weight room.

Although his life will still center around football, King says not being a member of the Wildcats will be a big change.

“I don’t know how I’m going to react to it,” King says. “It seems like it’s all I’ve been doing for the last four years, and all of a sudden, it’s over.”

While King will have to wait until April to learn his NFL fate, reserve running back Kevin Lawrence already has an option. Lawrence, who was the Montreal Offensive Player of the Year as a junior in high school, was picked by the Ottawa Renegades of the Canadian Football League in the third round of last year’s draft. He was allowed to defer to this year.

Lawrence was surprised by the news — he had no idea he’d been drafted until a friend from home called — and said his ultimate goal is to play in the NFL, not the CFL.

“I’ll try out for the league and probably be a free agent, but if that doesn’t work, the CFL is a good option,” Lawrence says. “Sometimes (the CFL) is a good stop for guys to show what they can do and make it to the NFL.”

Lawrence took three classes this quarter even though he had already graduated. He said after the season he still plans to spend a lot of time up at the stadium, lifting weights and staying in shape.

While some of the seniors expect to be back on the field a year from now, others can accept that their playing careers will be over after Saturday.

“I’m ready to try new things,” Schweighardt says. “Maybe I won’t miss it right away because I’m not supposed to be playing football in December or January or February, but next season it’ll hit me.”