Ron Dayne enjoys a celebration as much as the next tailback.

But the 1999 Heisman winner hadn't planned to be here this weekend for the reunion of the 1998 University of Wisconsin football team.

Nothing personal. Dayne still stays in touch with some of his former teammates, like Donnel Thompson and Cecil Martin.

But instead of attending a Friday night reception at Heritage Hall -- honoring the '98 Big Ten champions and Rose Bowl winners -- he was hoping to be in an NFL training camp.

"I'm still getting phone calls from teams," said Dayne, who now is looking forward to the celebration. "And I'm waiting until the final cuts to see if anyone will bring me in."

Sighing, he added, "There are not many big backs left in the league anymore. A lot of teams are getting away from them."

Has the 30-year-old Dayne seriously thought about making it official and retiring from football? "Not yet," he insisted.

Fact is, a couple of teams have called Dayne and asked if he was staying in any kind of shape.

"Tennessee still calls to see how I'm doing and If I'm still working out, stuff like that," he said. "New Orleans called last week checking to see if I'm healthy."

Dayne has been running at Middleton High School and working out at Fast Action Fitness on Madison's far southwest side. He weighs 255 and would like to lose another 10 pounds.

"I'd just have to get used to wearing pads again, and it would only take a few practices a week to do so," he said. "Sometimes, I work out with my helmet on."

Sometimes, he wonders why he isn't still playing in Houston.

In 2007, Dayne led the Texans in rushing with a career-best 773 yards on 194 carries. He had six touchdowns.

Darius Walker and Ahman Green were the second- and third-leading rushers in Houston with 264 and 260 yards, respectively.

In 2006, Dayne also led the Texans in rushing with 612 yards, including a career-high 153 yards and two scores in an upset win over the Indianapolis Colts, who went on to win the Super Bowl following that season.

"I'm kind of disappointed (in Houston) because I don't know what I did wrong," Dayne said. "I just guess that they wanted to go in a different direction."

Dayne's contract -- he made $1.3 million last season after earning $600,000 with Houston in 2006 -- had something to do with the Texans electing not to resign the free agent.

During the offseason, Houston signed a "big back" in Chris Brown and drafted a "scatback" in West Virginia's Steve Slaton.

The injury-prone Green is still around, along with Chris Taylor, the former Indiana Hoosier.

"I don't think any team is just going to bring me into camp just to bring me in," Dayne pointed out. "They're going to have to be in a position where they'd need me to run the ball for them."

The Titans have their "big back" in LenDale White, who has some injury issues, and their speed back in Chris Johnson, a rookie from East Carolina.