It may be tough to forever kill the player inside Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

“He’s always trying to step in on our player drills,” Northwestern senior defensive tackle Corbin Bryant said. “He’s got to put on pads first though.”

Fifteen years ago, Fitzgerald was running around Ryan Field at Northwestern as a two-time All-American at middle linebacker. Today, Fitzgerald is in his fifth season as the head coach at Northwestern, bringing a 34-26 career coaching record into Saturday’s game against Illinois.

“He has this great passion for the game,” Northwestern junior quarterback Dan Persa said. “He’s been there before, and he’s won two Big Ten titles, so he knows what it takes. His demanding attitude goes a long way.”

By the end of this season, Fitzgerald will already have done what no Northwestern coach has ever done — lead the Wildcats to three consecutive bowl appearances.

“He has definitely transformed the culture around here for the better,” Persa said. “He’s a great coach that really knows how to get a team going.”

The change in culture around Northwestern’s football program has carried over onto the football field. In charge of a Northwestern football program that hasn’t had much success in football historically, Fitzgerald hasn’t had a losing record since his team went 4-8 in his first season.

“The attitude that we take and the attitude that we carry onto everything we do is directly from Coach Fitz,” senior linebacker Quentin Davie said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s added to everything we’ve done, with how hard we’ve worked and prepared. We want to go out and match his level of energy and his attitude in every practice and game.”

Fitzgerald took over the Northwestern program after the sudden passing of Randy Walker, who coached the Wildcats from 1999 to 2005. Fitzgerald, who worked as a linebackers coach for Walker from 2001-05, was announced as Walker’s replacement less than two weeks after Walker died of a heart attack.

At the time, Fitzgerald was 31 years old, making him the youngest coach in NCAA Division I football history, and he still remains the youngest coach in the Big Ten today.

“He’s closer to us in age than other coaches we’ve had in our lives, so we can mess around with him a little,” Persa said.

Though the coach hasn’t played in a competitive game of football in over a decade, Davie said Fitzgerald would still hold his own at middle linebacker in a college football game today.

“He’d probably be able to pick up around five or six tackles,” Davie said.

Davie, a three-year starter at outside linebacker, attributes his development at the position to something he learned from watching Fitzgerald during his playing days ­— instincts.

“When I see clips and repeats of his games, his instincts just jumped out at you,” Davie said. “He always knew where the play was going to go. He’ll admit he wasn’t the fastest guy, but he was always in the mix.”

Davie, Persa and Bryant all said Fitzgerald was one of the main factors behind their decision to play at Northwestern.

“Guys on our team love playing for him,” Bryant said. “The guys he recruits, they can’t wait to come play for him. People absolutely love being around him.”

“He’s been a friend to me,” Bryant added. “He’s like that to all of us. He’s a real player’s coach. We can ask him about anything, about any situation that’s in our lives, so that’s been really cool.”

This interactive relationship has worked both ways between Fitzgerald and his players.

In 2008, Fitzgerald established the Leadership Council within the Northwestern football team. The Council, which consists of 10 players that are elected by the team, is included on all major decisions pertaining to the team.

“It means a lot to us as players,” said Davie, who is on the Council. “As players, we know we have that trust in us from him. We represent our teammates in making decisions for them, which is very important to our entire team.”

The Northwestern players have grown fond of the entire Fitzgerald family — his wife, Stacy, and three sons Jack, Ryan and Brendan. Fitzgerald’s sons can be seen running around at most practices and giving Northwestern players high-fives before games.

“They’re a great group of kids, and we’ve gotten to know them pretty well as players,” Persa said. “We get to hang out with them all the time, which is a lot of fun.”

Davie said he particularly enjoys palling around with 6-year-old Jack, who may follow in his dad’s footsteps.

“He might not play linebacker, he might be getting too big for his age,” Davie said with a smile. “He may be on the offensive line or something, but knowing Coach Fitz, he’ll make sure he turns into some kind of football player.”