ALLIANCE — Before Nick Sirianni was leading the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl, he was washing Mount Union uniforms with teammate Josh Ludwig.

“Zac Bruney (the Mount Union quarterback and now head coach at Wheeling University) was my roommate,” said Ludwig, an East Liverpool High School teacher and Beaver Local defensive coordinator. “He and Zac were good friends, so Nick was always around. We did laundry together for the football team. It was our work-study job for about $5 an hour.”

Now Sirianni is the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, who will play the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl Sunday.

Sirianni was a senior wide receiver at Mount Union in 2003 and was joined in the starting offensive lineup by center Rick Prescott, who was a standout at Beaver Local.

“I talked to some of the kids this week,” said Prescott, now the principal at Wellsville Middle School. “In their minds, they have a hard time believing that. They see him on TV and see me in the hall.”

Sirianni was a wide receiver Mount Union from 1999-2003 and was the defensive backs coach in 2004-05.

“Nick was a really good receiver,” said Ludwig, who was a starting defensive tackle at Mount Union. “He had a bad leg injury he came back from.”

“He was super competitive. He always wanted to win and always had something to say.”

“He was always very vocal,” Prescott said. “You knew where you stood with him.”

In his senior season at Mount Union, Sirianni was the second-leading receiver with 52 catches for 998 yards (19.2) and 13 touchdowns as the Purple Raiders went 13-1 and reached the 2003 NCAA Division III national championship game.

“Nick was very competitive,” Prescott said. “He comes across now as a Philadelphia tough guy. But if I was in a fight, he wouldn’t be the guy I would want to help me out.

“He was a little guy and knew his role,” Prescott said. “His brother was more of a standout. He’s from a very good family football family.”

Nick Sirianni followed his brothers, Mike and Jay, from Jamestown, N.Y., to Mount Union.

Mike was the best player in the family as a wide receiver on Mount Union’s first NCAA Division III national championship team in 1993. Mike is entering his 21st season as the head coach at Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) College.

Their father, Fran, was a successful high school coach at Southeastern Central High School in New York.

“Nick was always a student of the game and I knew his dad was a high school coach,” Ludwig said.

Mount Union set an NCAA record by winning its 55th consecutive game as Sirianni had seven catches for 130 yards and three touchdowns in a 66-0 win over Bridgewater (Va.) in a semifinal game in Alliance on Dec. 13, 2003.

The Purple Raiders lost in the national championship game to St. John’s (Minn.) 24-6 the next week, but Sirianni had a game-high eight catches for 106 yards.

Sirianni had a rapid rise through the ranks since leaving Mount Union for Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2006. He jumped to the NFL in 2009 as offensive quality control coach of the Chiefs.

“A lot of times it is about connections and who you know,” Prescott said. “He moved up quickly.”

“The direction he took was to be a professional coach,” Ludwig said. “Apparently he made the right impressions. He learned from the best — his brothers, dad and Coach Larry Kehres and he did it the right way.”

Frank Reich hired Sirianni as the Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator in 2018, a job he held until becoming the Philadelphia Eagles head coach in 2021.

“I was worried when he went to Philadelphia,” Ludwig said. “It’s the same town that threw snowballs at Santa Claus. I said he’s going to do really good or they’re going to run him out of town.”

Philadelphia is finding out what Mount Union knew long ago.

“He was a good teammate, good guy and good friend,” Ludwig said. “He was always a joy to be around.”

Game notes

• Sirianni frequently mentions his Mount Union connections to this day. He wore a Mount Union sweatshirt to an Eagles press conference before the Purple Raiders’ NCAA Division III championship game appearance in December.

“Nick really reps Mount Union,” Ludwig said. “He still wears a Mount Union shirt. That’s huge for the program.”

• Prescott hasn’t seen the Philadelphia Eagles run many of the same plays as when he played for Mount Union.

“I hate to say it, the scenario is it was 20 years since we played,” Prescott said. “There are some similarities, but the game has changed.”

• Ludwig sees the Eagles beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

“I think with the Philadelphia offensive line and pressure they can get on (Patrick) Mahomes with their four down linemen, their defensive backs are good enough to cover the receivers,” Ludwig said. “I think they will be able to shut that down.”

• Sirianni became the Philadelphia Eagles head coach only 16 years after leaving Mount Union.

“The Mount Union coaching tree never ceases to amaze me,” Ludwig said. “It is all credit to Larry Kehres and what he built. He prepared us for it. Even when we didn’t realize were learning to coach football, we were.

“I know Larry gets a lot of recognition, but I don’t think he gets enough. He is that great.”