At the conclusion of every conversation over the phone between NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish and his position coach Jim Zebrowski, he asked one question: “Are you having fun yet?”

It’s Zebrowski’s upbeat attitude that Harnish and the other Huskies quarterbacks have embraced with open arms.

“He’s got an amazing amount of energy,” Harnish said. “And just a positive attitude and that has definitely rubbed off on to [the quarterbacks].”

NIU head coach Jerry Kill and his coaching staff are as close as it gets to being a family. Eight of Kill’s 10 assistant coaches have been on board with him for at least nine years.

“I think it’s a whole group of people that fit together because they’ve had to work to get where they’re at,” Kill said.

So when Kill wanted to add Zebrowski to his group, he had to make sure it would be a good fit.

“This staff is so unique because they’ve been together for so long,” Zebrowski said. “They want to make sure besides being a football guy, ‘is he a good person? Does he fit in how we are? Can we enjoy working with him every day?'”

How “Z”, Kill and the rest of his long-tenured staff crossed paths started when Kill took over at Southern Illinois University in 2001.

Zebrowski had been on staff with the Salukis but left for Millikin in 2000, a year before Kill took over. So when Zebrowski heard that Kill had been hired to take over at his old stomping grounds, he called to congratulate him. At first, “Z” thought Kill had no idea who he was.

“He goes, ‘I do know who you are,'” Zebrowski said. “He goes, ‘some of the guys remember you [from the staff at SIU that carried over with Kill] and thought the world of you. You did a great job offensively when you were at [SIU] and I’d love to meet you some day and just talk ball.'”

Zebrowski accepted the olive branch that Kill extended. From there, the two would meet twice a year and converse about football.

“I’d go down [to SIU] and meet him, and for six or seven hours we’d just talk football,” Zebrowski said.

Throughout the duration of their many meetings, Zebrowski developed relationships with Kill’s staff.

“When I stopped by, they treated me like one of the guys,” Zebrowski said.

Fast forward to 2008. Kill had landed the head coaching position with NIU, while Zebrowski held the position of offensive coordinator at Wisconsin-Whitewater.

“[Coach Kill] calls and says, ‘hey Jimmy, if something ever happens, I’m probably going to call you,'” Zebrowski said. “And I said, ‘well, I’m probably going to answer.'”

That phone call would transpire after former NIU wide receivers coach P.J. Fleck left to take the same position with Rutgers. To replace Fleck, former quarterbacks coach Pat Poore switched to coach the receivers.

But it wasn’t just Kill’s decision to add Zebrowski to the staff. Kill went as far as to say that Poore was highly influential in finding his successor.

“The reason Jimmy is here is because that’s who Coach Poore wanted here,” Kill said.

While Zebrowski is ecstatic about working with Kill and his staff, he admires how easy it has been to settle in with all of them.

“They’re great people,” Zebrowski said. “Forget about coaching; they just all care about it. These guys are like family.”