Teammates pour on superlatives when describing Nick Sirianni the wide receiver at Mount Union from 1999-2003.
“Stud” … “Monster” … “Matchup nightmare.”
Sirianni, a 6-foot-3, 193-pound receiver, was a key piece on two national championship teams as a player and one more as an assistant coach. Yet former Mount Union coach Larry Kehres – who won 11 Division III national championships and compiled a 332-24-3 record from 1985-2000 – peels back a different memory.
Sirianni’s older brothers Mike and Jay also played for the Purple Raiders. Kehres – or “LK” as he’s still called by former players – does not see the go-up-and-get-it-receiver from the past or the always-fired-up-coach who will lead the Philadelphia Eagles into a Super Bowl 59 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Kehres remembers the 10-year-old version of Sirianni on the sideline watching his brothers, and the mental picture is not all that different from the present day.
“He was always running around,” Kehres told Sporting News. “He always had a lot of energy. He had more of an edge than a quiet side to him. He was always alive with personality. He got after it pretty good, and by the time he got here he knew what to expect. He wanted to be a good football player.”
How good was Sirianni the football player? Robert McDavid – a former Mount Union quarterback and defensive back – arrived on campus before Sirianni’s senior season in 2003.
“He had enough speed to be a deep threat, but I remember how I loved watching his routes,” McDavid told SN. “What he learned from LK was his attention to detail. You could see that in his route running. He was just so crisp and accurate from the yardage, the way he cut, the way he broke. He was just clinical.”
Sirianni’s two defining moments were a life-threatening injury and incredible comeback on the field which shaped his coaching career afterward. That all started at Mount Union.
“That program taught me how to grow as a man, and that program taught me how to win,” Sirianni said at Super Bowl Opening Night on Tuesday. “We didn’t lose many games at Mount Union. I guess you could say I got my degree in education, but I got my Masters Degree in football at Mount Union.”
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Nick Sirianni’s family connection to Mount Union
Sirianni’s brother Mike played wide receiver at Mount Union from 1990-93. Jay followed at quarterback for the Purple Raiders from 1993-97. Before the brothers played for Kehres, they played for their father Fran Sirianni, the longtime coach at Southwestern Central High School in Jamestown, N.Y., who was married to Amy, a school teacher.
“It was not a surprise Nick was an education major and planning on coaching,” Kehres said.
Nick Sirianni arrived at Mount Union – which is nestled in Alliance, Ohio – a 20,000-plus city in the shadow of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Mike and Jay won national championships with the Purple Raiders, and Nick Sirianni switched from quarterback to receiver when he arrived in 1999.
Nick Sirianni record with Mount Union as player, coach
| YEAR | ROLE | RECORD | RESULT |
| 1999 | Receiver | 12-1 | Semifinals |
| 2000 | Receiver | 14-0 | National champs |
| 2001 | Receiver | 14-0 | National champs |
| 2002 | Receiver | 14-0 | National champs |
| 2003 | Receiver | 13-1 | Runner up |
| 2004 | Assistant coach | 14-1 | Semifinals |
| 2005 | Assistant coach | 12-1 | National champs |
Gary Smeck – who had a 40-1 record as the starting quarterback at Mount Union – remembers Nick Sirianni growing into his role as a receiver. At that time, there was not spring football in Division III. So the Mount Union players organized their own workouts.
“Nick was sort of a sponge,” Smeck told SN. “I was with him for two years in college, but he was always at my house. He was always willing to throw. We ran our own 7-on-7’s. A lot of programs would talk about it. Football was a different beast up there.”
Smeck also remembers the New York-style attitude Sirianni brought to the small-town Ohio practice field. There was a different emotion. Smeck would lead the Purple Raiders to a national championship and would later join Mike Sirianni as an assistant coach at Washington and Jefferson. Smeck still has to hold back a laugh to choose a description when describing how that family works.
“The Sirianni family they have a little bit more – fire – in them,” Smeck said. ” I don’t really know how else to say it properly.”
Yet Smeck saw the potential in Nick Sirianni the player. By 2001, Sirianni was ready to step into a starring role.
“You couldn’t match up with him – especially in Division III,” Smeck said.
Nick Sirianni’s career-threatening injury at Mount Union
Toledo coach Jason Candle was a senior receiver at Mount Union in 2001. He was lined up next to Sirianni at practice ahead of an early September showdown against John Carroll.
“I remember that injury like it was yesterday,” Candle told SN. “We were running the pass route right next to each other and I looked out of the corner of my eye and he had fallen down. I didn’t know what happened. I’m kind of jogging back after the play wondering if he’s OK. He got up and went back down pretty quickly. I knew something was wrong.”
Sirianni had swelling in his calf – and the diagnosis grew more serious within a few hours. He had compartment syndrome – which occurs when pressure restricts blood flow in the leg. The rest is a blur. Sirianni needed to have surgery on Friday. Kehres recalled Fran and Amy driving from Jamestown to Alliance and showering at his house. Kehres visited Sirianni before the game that Saturday. Sirianni was appreciative – if not surprised – that his coach showed up on a game day. Kehres responded, “I had plenty of time to come and see you.”
“It’s a source of – it’s an experience that he draws up on as a coach,” Kehres said. “As coaches, we live through those kinds of things with players who suffer injuries and rehabilitate and come back. If you coach long enough, there are a lot of those.”
Sirianni discussed what Kehres meant to him at his press conference Monday.
“Just connection and caring about his players,” Sirianni said. “I always felt how much he cared about me and was always trying to get me better. That doesn’t mean — I have a lot of stories about how he yelled at me as well.
“Just because he cares doesn’t mean he wasn’t extremely demanding and I would say that’s the other thing,” Sirianni said on Tuesday. “The demand. Just extremely demanding in the detail of the game of football as a coach and a player.”
Sirianni had two years of eligibility left. This was his comeback story as a player.
Mount Union Athletics
Nick Sirianni makes incredible comeback at receiver
Kehres remembers the details about the opener on Sept. 7, 2002, at Wisconsin-Whitewater. It was a road game with hot temperatures. Sirianni was back – but with players you never know how a return from a serious injury might go.
Sirianni did not take long to show the leg was fine.
“Nick had two touchdowns on a slant-go,” Kehres said. “Two receivers on the right. The inside receiver goes up the boundary, and the outside comes inside and goes up the hashmark. We scored twice on that play.”
The Purple Raiders won 44-21, and Sirianni thanked the trainers and teammates who encouraged him through the process. Candle – who was now the receivers coach at Mount Union – remembered the locker room afterward.
“All the great players that have come through Mount has that one signature game that they come back to and obviously Nick had a few of them,” Candle said. “Any time you can come back from those moments and put a stamp on your recovery process that’s a big deal. A lot of guys were watching him and what he was going through were really proud of him.”
“I recently talked to him and he brought it up,” Kehres added. “He sometimes says to his players, ‘Whenever you remember a great moment in your football career – a shining moment – think about it and think about all the people involved in you having that moment.'”
Mount Union won the national championship in 2002, and Sirianni emerged as a star the following season. He had 52 catches for 998 yards and 13 TDs as a senior. He averaged 19.2 yards per catch and helped set a standard for future Mount Union receivers Pierre Garcon and Cecil Shorts Jr. – both who reached the NFL – to follow.
“He was our go-to guy,” McDavid said. “Some possessions we would just go to him every play. Again, it was his size. Not a ton of guys at the D-III level had his height combined with his skill set.”
Sirianni saved one more memorable moment for his final home game – a 66-0 victory against Bridgewater in which Sirianni had seven catches for 130 yards and three TDs. That last touchdown, however, had consequences.
“It is probably my fault for not having a bigger divider,” Kehres said. “His brother Jay is standing on the other side of the rope. Nick celebrates by giving his brother a big hug over the rope, and the ref gives him a 15-yard penalty.”
Kehres yelled at Sirianni at the time – but the two share a laugh about it now, and that was profiled by “NFL Films.” Kehres tells the story that Sirianni now shows that picture to his players in Philadelphia with a coaching lesson: “I did it too.”
When you do things the right way, winning will find you. 💜
Larry Kehres may have one of the best resumes in college football history, but it’s his character that makes him stand out the most.#NFLFilmsPresents: Larry Kehres | @mountunion pic.twitter.com/ot5ZIKrEnj
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) November 29, 2024
Nick Sirianni’s coaching career starts at Mount Union
Sirianni saw a different side of Kehres the following season when he was hired as the new defensive backs coach for Mount Union, where he stayed from 2004-05.
Sirianni joined what at minimum could be described as an all-time staff at the Division III level. Candle was still the receivers coach and would later be the offensive coordinator. Vince Kehres – Larry’s son who would take over as head coach from 2013-19 – coached the offensive line. Matt Campbell – another former Mount Union star who is now the head coach at Iowa State – and Sirianni were on the defensive side. Kehres said that group challenged him with a constant set of new ideas – ones that can be seen across the FBS and NFL today.
“They’re all in the coaching staff at the same time and a couple are on offense and a couple are on defense,” Kehres said. “Good night. You know I didn’t like a lot of hitting in practice, but they did. What an interesting group. Interesting group and you know many of them went on and they’re still coaching.”
By this time, McDavid had switched from quarterback to safety – and the Raiders implemented a 4-2-5 defense in 2005 when Vince Kehres took over as defensive coordinator. That meant more individual meetings with Sirianni, who had maintained the respect of the players as a coach.
“A lot of the guys were friends with him, but they respected him because they knew he was a good football mind and such a good player,” McDavid said. “From technique or scheming or developing a game plan for various teams. Different passing trees and tendencies he was very good at that. … Just super focused and every little detail is not missed.”
Sirianni also found a touch for recruiting. He landed running back Nate Kmic, who eventually would set the Division III career record with 8,074 rushing yards. Sirianni took his next job as the receivers coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Larry Kehres recalls how one of their phone conversations ended.
“Don’t forget I recruited Nate Kmic, for you, coach,” Sirianni said.
“You’re getting stars,” Kehres responded. “I’m putting stars on Nate’s helmet and putting your initials on them because you helped recruit that kid.”
What a Super Bowl means to Nick Sirianni, Mount Union coaching tree
Sirianni took his first NFL job as an offensive quality control coach with the Chiefs in 2009 and worked his way up the ranks until he took the offensive coordinator position with the Indianapolis Colts. Tom Manning – a Mount Union teammate – joined him as the tight ends coach.
From there, Sirianni took the Eagles job – and he had three principles in place from the start.
“When I talk about my core values for the Eagles my vision and what it was when I got the job it was about toughness, detail and together,” Sirianni said Monday.
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Sirianni has a .706 winning percentage in four seasons – the highest mark among active NFL coaches and fifth best all time. Kehres had a .929 winning percentage at Mount Union – the highest among college coaches across all levels. Kehres also had three principles – ones that Philadelphia has put to use in reaching the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons – and a reason why Sirianni helped land another running back in Saquon Barkley.
“I always said players first,” Kehres said. “Players, formations, then plays. The Eagles signed a great, great running back. Anybody could have tried to sign that running back, but the Eagles did it.
“You could do it either way. You can pass all the time and then run draw or screens or you can run the ball real well then have more open receivers,” Kehres said. “But Nick and his staff are utilizing their players quite well.”
So it’s easy to understand why a Super Bowl would not be just for Philadelphia. It would be for the Sirianni family, with four life-time coaches. It would be for all those Mount Union players that built a dynasty in Division III. The text threads will be active Sunday.
“It’s a very small school but a very tight-knit group of players and coaches,” Smeck said. “It’s just a big family and it’s awesome.”
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Internally, it will be part of the competition that started on the Mount Union practice fields as players and coaches.
“He’s one of us and we’re certainly rooting for him to get it done,” Candle said. “That’s just another feather in the Mount Union cap and another testament to Coach Kehres.”
Candle said one of the attributes all the players and coaches from the Mount Union tree inherited from Kehres was the ability to move on from one season to the next in seamless fashion. Sirianni fits that description, too, now as a coach.
“When it’s all said and done, you can look back at your accomplishments,” Candle said. “Winning a Super Bowl is the ultimate thing and ultimate feather in the cap and the pinnacle of the sport, so certainly there is something that Nick will have bragging rights over every Mount Union person ever.”
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