“Everybody knows coach Gibbs and who he is. Everybody,” quarterback Jason Campbell said. “With coach Zorn, everybody had to try to get to know him and work on the relationship.”

He and Zorn quickly developed a mutual trust, one that has helped Campbell enjoy by far his best season as a pro, including 10 touchdown passes and only three interceptions.

Zorn earned the respect of others, too, even right tackle Jon Jansen, a 10th-year veteran the new coach benched at the start of the season.

“The concern we had was: ’How is he going to handle being in control of everything, instead of just being in control of his position? He didn’t get that step where he was just in control of the offense. Now he’s got offense and defense and special teams. He’s got to worry about 56 guys instead of just 22. How’s that pressure going to work for him?”’ Jansen said.

“And I think he’s done a tremendous job so far of dealing with everything that happens as a football coach.”

Records certainly do not lie. Entering Sunday’s game against the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, Zorn is 7-4 as an NFL head coach, a mark matched by Harbaugh and Smith. Sparano is 6-5 working for Parcells. All have a shot at making the playoffs.

After last weekend, five teams already had more victories than they did all of last season, and three are the Dolphins (1-15 in 2007), Falcons (4-12) and Ravens (5-11).

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“This team was starving from the year before and was really hungry and wanted a change,” Dolphins nose tackle Jason Ferguson said. “Tony has an air. He’s his own guy. He doesn’t sound like Bill. He sounds like Tony. ... There’s direction behind his harsh language. And when you see something that works, we’re all going to fall in.”

Consider, too, that Harbaugh (Joe Flacco) and Smith (Matt Ryan) are thriving with rookie quarterbacks, something rare for any NFL coach, no matter the bona fides.

Perhaps because they haven’t done this before, these head coaches do seem to do things their way. Zorn and Smith both draw kudos in their locker rooms for seeking players’ input. Sparano uses the Wildcat offense. Zorn will call for a pass on fourth down. Smith’s own gutsy fourth-down call last Sunday helped deliver a 17-point upset of first-place Carolina.

Not that everything has come easily or naturally. There is on-the-job learning to be done, after all.

“There’s some situations that come up during the course of games still that are first-time situations,” Sparano said.

Nonetheless, he and his 2008 classmates are doing just fine week after week.

“I didn’t know much about coach Harbaugh at all” when he was hired, veteran Ravens center Jason Brown said. “He’s fitting in better than anyone could have ever imagined.”

And what about Zorn’s self-evaluation?

The coach who talks about his quarterback improving from Point A to Point D in what both hope is a progression toward Point Z wouldn’t assign a grade to his own performance.

“It’s hard for me to sort of judge myself. I haven’t reached a ceiling yet, hopefully,” Zorn said. “I think I’m still growing.”