Kansas football QBs coach Jim Zebrowski

An assistant for head coach Lance Leipold at both Buffalo and Wisconsin-Whitewater, Jim Zebrowski is the latest man in charge of the Kansas football program’s quarterbacks room.

Zebrowski, who also has Power Five experience from his days as an assistant at Minnesota, spent the past four years as Buffalo’s QBs coach and co-offensive coordinator, working closely with KU’s new O.C., Andy Kotelnicki.

Though Zebrowski is walking into a program with no clearcut No. 1 QB for the 2021 season, he has coached at the college level since 1997 and, according to Leipold, “has a tremendous track record of developing quarterbacks.”

The Bulls were by no means a passing team in 2020. However, UB QB Kyle Vantrease still delivered with two big games through the air. Vantrease threw for 353 yards, going 17-for-27, with four touchdowns, in the Bulls’ win over Miami (Ohio) in their second game of the season. His next high usage performance came in the MAC title game, when Vantrease passed for 365 yards and one touchdown, going 29-for-42, with one interception. The QB became the first in the MAC to throw for 350 or more yards twice in a season since 2014.

When playing to the team’s strengths meant relying more on the passing game, Bulls quarterback Tyree Jackson in 2018 produced at such a high-level that he became the first player in program history to win the MAC’s offensive player of the year award and the first QB in UB history to earn All-MAC honors. The Bulls finished 10-4 and Jackson passed for 3,131 yards, with 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

Zebrowski first joined Leipold’s Buffalo staff in 2017, in what proved to be a difficult year in terms of injuries to quarterbacks. UB started three different QBs, yet finished first in the MAC with 3,490 passing yards. One of UB’s backups, Drew Anderson, while filling in against Western Michigan set UB and MAC records with 597 passing yards and seven TDs.

Before working for one season (2016) at Division III Hamline University as the assistant head coach, Zebrowski had the longest stay of his career at one program, working from 2011-15 for head coach Jerry Kill at Minnesota.

In 2010, Zebrowski coached QBs at Northern Illinois, where QB Chandler Harnish threw for 2,530 yards, with 21 TDs, five interceptions and a career-best 64.7% completion percentage. The Indianapolis Colts selected Harnish in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

The Huskies went 11-3, made the MAC title game and beat Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl in 2010, which led to Zebrowski following Kill from NIU to Minnesota.

One of the most successful runs of Zebrowski’s career came about during his first time teaming up with Leipold, at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater from 2007-09. The Warhawks were 42-3 over the course of that span and won two national championships.

Zebrowski’s background includes some time as a head coach, too, as he led Division III Lakeland to a 28-12 mark from 2004-06.