The biggest complaint Jason Candle has about Nick Sirianni is his inability to clean the dishes.
The head coaches of the Toledo Rockets and Philadelphia Eagles were teammates and co-workers at Mount Union. And for a three-year period, they lived in the same Alliance, Ohio, house, where the dishes piled up and arguments commenced about who was responsible for the mess.
On Sunday, Sirianni will play for the most coveted kitchen table centerpiece in all of sports: the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“Really proud of him, really excited for him,” Candle said. “I’m always looking and watching his team’s production and record. It’s been exciting to watch them have a great start and battle some adversity. Obviously, their playoff run has been very impressive. It looks like he’s having a great time. That’s what we’re all after — being successful and having fun doing what we love. If we can have a positive impact on people, it’s a win-win. From watching his team from afar, it certainly looks like all those things are true.”
The person who brought Siranni to Mount Union was current Toledo defensive coordinator Vince Kehres. The then-defensive line coach was familiar with the Sirianni family because Nick’s brothers, Jay and Mike, had previously attended Mount Union, and Kehres roomed with Jay.
So when Kehres initiated the recruiting process with Nick — a wide receiver from western New York — no introductory stage was necessary.
“Nick was an overachiever,” Kehres said. “He was a good high school player, certainly not any type of dynamic recruit. He was a kid who was going to outwork other guys. He had a major surgery [compartment syndrome] and there were a lot of question marks about whether he could come back. He just really worked hard and came back better than ever.”
Sirianni caught 68 passes for 1,332 yards and 17 touchdowns during his career and was part of three national championship teams. Candle, a fellow wide receiver, was his teammate for two of those titles and his position coach for another. Candle was the wide receivers coach during Sirianni’s senior season when he caught 52 passes for 998 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Candle remembers the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Sirianni running crisp routes, working relentlessly to return from injury, and then doubling down to improve as a player. The persistence didn’t go unnoticed by Sirianni’s teammates.
“He understood and respected that he had to lead the room by example, and he did,” Candle said.
In 2004 and 2005, Candle and Sirianni, who coached defensive backs, were on the same all-star staff that included Kehres, Matt Campbell, Ohio State video coordinator George Momirovic, and North Texas defensive coordinator Matt Caponi.
During the offseason, head coach Larry Kehres would give assistants projects to make suggestions and offer critiques about the assigned topic. Following the 2005 season, Sirianni was tasked with studying defensive coverages.
The Purple Raiders had just finished 14-1 and won the national championship, allowing 154 points all season and pitching three shutouts. In another seven games, opponents scored seven or fewer points. But that wasn’t good enough for Sirianni, who had plenty of ideas and constructive criticism for his co-workers on the defensive staff.
“I was sitting there thinking I’m a genius because we just won the national championship, and this 24-year-old is critiquing everything we’re doing coverage-wise,” Vince Kehres said. “But thinking back on it, he was ahead of his time for a young guy to be that bold and confident.”
From the start, Sirianni was a relationship builder with players, according to Kehres, and that gave him the ability to recruit. Sirianni was the lead recruiter on Delta running back Nate Kmic, who set the NCAA all-divisions record for career rushing yards (8,074), career all-purpose yards (9,651), and career touchdowns (130).
Sirianni would not settle for mediocrity. He was a hands-on coach who always tried to provide players with options and ways to elevate their game, a trait that every recruit covets in their coaches.
“No matter what room he walked into or what player he was in front of, he would always try to find the answers for them,” Candle said. “I think players really appreciate that.”
When Sirianni left Mount Union for Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he made his switch to offense, Kehres still vividly recalls a conversation he had with his wife, telling her, “He’s going to do some great things.”
A move to the NFL in 2009 at 29 started Sirianni’s track to Philadelphia. He was a quality control coach for the Kansas Chiefs for three seasons before becoming the team’s wide receivers coach. Sirianni was not retained by Andy Reid when Chiefs coach Todd Haley was fired, but he caught on at San Diego and then became the offensive coordinator at Indianapolis in 2018 before the Eagles hired him in 2021.
Candle and Kehres went to the Divisional Round playoff game against the New York Giants, spending time on the field during warmups and seeing up close the impact Sirianni has on his players.
“They want to do well for him in the National Football League,” Kehres said. “Players always fight being a little selfish, and coaches do, too. There’s no doubt. When you see a team that really comes together and is playing for each other, that’s a credit to the head coach and the coaching staff. That was evident to me being there in person. They are all-in for the team.”
Not bad for someone who let the dishes pile up and blamed it on his roommate.
“it was evident early on,” Candle said, “that no matter what he chose as a profession, it was going to go well.”
First Published February 11, 2023, 1:32 p.m.
