From a Division III defensive assistant coach to working with some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, Nick Sirianni has taken it all in stride.
Sirianni, a Jamestown, N.Y. native, was promoted to the San Diego Chargers’ quarterbacks coach job Feb. 3 after serving as the team’s quality control coach on offense last season.
Sirianni will take over for Frank Reich, the former backup quarterback for the Buffalo Bills when that team went to four consecutive Super Bowls, who was promoted to offensive coordinator.
In San Diego, Sirianni will be working with Pro Bowl quarterback Philip Rivers
“I’m very excited,” Sirianni said in a Feb. 13 phone interview. “Good players make good coaches. He’s one of the best quarterbacks there is in the NFL.
“I’m very excited to get an opportunity to work with him. I’m truly blessed.”
Sirianni, a 1999 graduate of Southwestern High School in Jamestown, played for Division III powerhouse Mount Union (Ohio) College, where he won two NCAA championships as a player and another as an assistant coach the year after graduating.
As a Mount Union senior in 2003, he was named an all-conference wide receiver after catching 52 passes for 998 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Sirianni has plenty of ties to the local area. His father, Fran, is from Kane was a sophomore starter on the Wolves’ 1963 undefeated football team.
That team, the only undefeated team in school history, was coached by Bernie McQuown. McQuown has had very successful head coaching stints at East Brady, Kane and Indiana High School.
For the last 27 years, McQuown has been IUP’s special teams and defensive ends coach. From 2006 to 2008, he and Sirianni served on head coach Lou Tepper’s staff.
“I really thought he was the type of kid who was going to move up,” McQuown said. “He was single, he had no ties and he knew people.
“He wants to learn. He’s never satisfied.”
One of the people Sirianni knew was current Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley. In 2009, Haley had just accepted the Chiefs head coaching job, and offered Sirianni a spot on his staff.
“It’s a lot of luck of who you know and people you get around,” Sirianni said. “I’ve been fortunate to be around good coaches. It’s all about opportunity.”
After spending three seasons as Kansas City’s offensive quality control coach, a job that required breaking down opponent’s film and working with Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Cassel, Sirianni was promoted to wide receivers coach by new coach Romeo Crennel after Haley was fired.
“He’s an intelligent individual and he’s willing to spend the time and work,” McQuown said of Sirianni. “He has a tremendous football background.”
A tremendous, and successful, football background, that is. Fran is a former coach at Southwestern, while his older brothers Mike and Jay are the current head coaches at Division III Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) University and Southwestern, respectively.
As Sirianni settles into his new position, his first order of business in San Diego will be trying helping Rivers, the reigning Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year, build on a season in which he threw for 4,000 yards, 32 touchdowns and won a playoff game.
Coaching Rivers will present another opportunity where the starting quarterback he is working with is the same age as him. Sirianni, 32, was the same age when he worked with Cassel in Kansas City.
“Once a player knows you care about them and they know you can help them, age is a non-issue,” Sirianni said. “Players want someone that cares about them as a player.”
It’s been quite a rise for a former Division III wide receiver-turned-assistant coach. For the upcoming season working with Rivers, Sirianni states his goals with the simplicity of a veteran coach.
“You’ve got to prepare like you normally do,” Sirianni said. “There’s nothing different. I’m going to prepare like I know how to prepare.”
