DeKALB – Jeff Phelps looked around the conference table during his first staff meeting under newly hired Northern Illinois coach Jerry Kill and felt like an outsider.
Surrounding Phelps and wide receivers coach P.J. Fleck, the two holdovers from retired NIU coach Joe Novak’s staff, were: defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys, strength and conditioning coach Eric Klein and running backs coach Robert Reeves, all of whom had been with Kill since his first head coaching job at Saginaw Valley State in the mid-1990s.
Also sitting across the table were offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover, linebackers coach Tom Matukewicz, tight ends coach Brian Anderson, quarterbacks coach Pat Poore and special teams/defensive backs coach Jay Sawvel, all of whom had spent most of the past decade with Kill.
“I really felt like I was at a family reunion,” Phelps said. “But right there, in that instant, I knew exactly why they were successful where they were, and I knew we were going to be successful because of the close-knit group that we have.”
It’s rare to see such staff continuity in college football these days, especially considering Kill has been a head coach at four colleges over the past 16 years. Twenty-two of the 120 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision programs changed head coaches after last season, causing greater flux among assistant coaches.
But during his gradual ascension up the college football coaching totem pole, Kill has mirrored the stable structure of some of the longest-tenured coaches in the FBS, like Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne.
“To me, the key to the success we’ve had as a staff at different places is because of the people I surround myself with,” Kill said. “They make up for the limitations I have. We have great chemistry.”
‘We hit the ground running’
With such turnover in the coaching ranks around college football, many programs have a transition phase in which staffs must develop a rapport and shared philosophy.
Not Kill’s staff, which has had only one assistant coaching change during three seasons at NIU. Jim Zebrowksi was hired as the quarterbacks coach and Poore moved to wide receivers after Rutgers hired Fleck.
“We hit the ground running,” Claeys said. “You spend a lot less time in meetings the longer you’re together. That just means more time you can spend with (players) teaching them.”
It also means the coaches don’t have to banter back and forth on which recruits to take or how to run practice.
“Back in the day, college coaches weren’t free agents, so people developed together a system, a belief and a philosophy,” Limegrover said. “That’s what we have here.”
What matters most
Kill takes care of his assistants. Claeys points out that Kill wouldn’t renegotiate a second contract with Southern Illinois until his assistants received extensions.
Still, Kill doesn’t expect to give without getting something in return.
“He’s the most demanding person I’ve ever been around, but he’s the most caring, too,” Claeys said.
That means long hours, but not enough to keep his assistants continually away from a growing number of little ones often seen scampering around Huskie Stadium after practices.
“We can compete for championships but still be a father and a husband,” said Matukewicz, the father of a 3-year-old daughter. “He’s going to push right to that edge, but he’s not going to cross that. Some push and push right through the family time. Others don’t push enough and that’s why they don’t win.”
And winning is still what matters most even when you’re working with guys you’ve known for more than a decade.
“If you bring the same team back, that’s good (only) if they’re hungry, they’re competing, they’re trying to get better,” Matukewicz said. “It’s the same thing with the staff.”
Sticking together
Kill’s staff has climbed the coaching ladder together, starting in Division II with Saginaw Valley State and Emporia State before stepping up to the Football Championship Series level at SIU and subsequently the FBS at NIU.
How much longer the union remains is unknown.
Other BCS programs have approached Limegrover about becoming an offensive line coach. Claeys has heard overtures from other FBS schools and the NFL.
So far, they’ve stuck by Kill.
“He’s always been supportive if we’ve looked somewhere else,” Limegrover said. “But it’s interesting when you have other opportunities and you look at the big picture, it’s kind of hard to say the grass is going to be greener because right here you have a guy fighting to make your standard of living better, make your job environment better.”
Kill admits he can’t offer his assistants the most money. NIU’s staff of nine assistant coaches made a little more than $700,000, according to a USA Today database, only about $50,000 more than the combined yearly salaries of Illinois’ two first-year coordinators, Paul Petrino and Vic Koenning.
But the job security within Kill’s so-far successful programs has kept his assistants from chasing the great unknown.
“I guess the best way to put it is we don’t go looking for jobs,” Claeys said. “It’s just hard to leave somebody like [Kill]. We’ve all built our way up together, so I’ve never coached at a Tennessee or anything, so I don’t know what I’m missing if I am.
“Guys have goals and ambitions, so they may get a chance. But it’s sure been a [heck] of a lot of fun.”
