ROCKFORD — Starting on Wednesday, the Rockford Regents will be guided by the youngest head football coach currently in the Division III ranks.

J.T. Zimmerman is 29, and will turn 30 on Friday, and he’s already in charge of a Regents football team that went 3-7 last year, and appears to be on the rise. And the guy who hired him isn’t the slightest bit worried.

“No, I’m pretty confident, I feel great about it,” Rockford University athletic director Jason Mulligan said after making the Zimmerman hiring official. “Age never played a part in this. It’s about his passion, his dedication, his work ethic. I’m not worried, I’m excited.”

Why so young?

Mulligan doesn’t feel an added sense of pressure after hiring the young Zimmerman, the Regents’ defensive coordinator the past four seasons, mostly because he’s had a chance to see him in action. Zimmerman has worked so hard on the recruiting trail the past four years that Mulligan added a position of recruiting coordinator just for Zimmerman last year.

He didn’t need that tag for long. Zimmerman was hired the day after Jim Schroeder left his post.

“J.T. was just so organized and so good at the recruiting side of things, he’s really been the backbone of our recruiting program for awhile,” said Mulligan, who also got his first shot as a D-III head coach at the age of 29. “He earned this. His love for the game, and his work ethic and what he’s willing to do, is beyond his years.”

Before coming over with then-head coach Jim Schroeder to join the Regents coaching staff as the defensive coordinator in 2015, Zimmerman spent a season as the defensive backs coach at Western New England University. Prior to that, he spent a total of six seasons at Benedictine University, the first four as a linebacker, and the next two as an assistant coach under Schroeder.

Time to build

Zimmerman is replacing Schroeder, who accepted the head coaching position at Benedictine University, his alma mater.

Schroeder left Rockford after four seasons, during which the Regents had 32 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference scholar athletes, 25 All-NACC performers, 11 NACC Players of the Week, one all-region selection and one All-American. Rockford also tied its highest ever finish in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in 2017 with a fifth-place finish.

“This is a team that is close, we feel that,” Zimmerman said. “We went 3-7 last year, but lost a game in overtime, and lost another one in the last minute. Those are games we can learn to win, and we can change this thing around real quick.”

The Regents, who open the 2019 season on the road on Sept. 7 at MacMurray College, will kick off spring football practice on March 31, with practices being held at Sportscore One.

Jay Taft: 815-987-1384; jtaft@rrstar.com; @JayTaft