Mike Sirianni

Vikings Sports Now wants to give a shout out to Hopewell resident  and Washington and Jefferson head football coach Mike Sirianni.

Yesterday, Sirianni’s football team concluded the regular season by dismantling Thiel, 67-0. With the win, the Presidents (8-2, 8-0) claimed the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, their 28th conference championship in program history.

Sirianni’s tenure was W&J has been just incredible as his overall record improved to 202-48 and a conference record of 143-25.

A number of W&J players achieved impress milestones yesterday:
-Senior wide receiver John Peduzzi became the second player in W&J football history to surpass 4,000 career passing yards. Peduzzi currently has the most receiving yards in all of the NCAA (Division 1, 11 and III) with 4,020 in his career. He is also second in all of the NCAA in career receiving touchdowns with 52.

-Fellow wide receiver Jacob Macosko (Peters Township HS) went over 1,000 receiving yards for the second season.

-Sophomore cornerback Dante DeRubbo (Trinity HS) moved into the top five list for single-season interceptions with seven. DeRubbo is three interceptions away from tying the single-season record, held by Ricky Williams in 1992 and Mark Persichette in 1975.

Sirianni and his team await to find out its opponent in the NCAA Playoffs, which will be officially announced during the NCAA Division III Football Selection Show tonight at 5 PM.

Best of luck to Coach Siranni and W&J in the upcoming playoffs!

Hopewell resident Mike Sirianni will never forget Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean.

It was DeJean, on his 22nd birthday, no less, who made Sirianni believe that his brother, Nick, and the Eagles were going to win the Super Bowl.

The Kansas City Chiefs faced a third-and-16 from their own 24 midway through the second quarter of Super Bowl LIX. The Eagles had just gotten to Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes on back-to-back plays, forcing a lengthy third down. Mahomes took the snap in the gun, left the pocket and fired a ball toward wideout DeAndre Hopkins downfield.

DeJean undercut the route and raced 38 yards back to the end zone — giving Mike hope and Nick and the Eagles a 17-0 lead.

“The score was right in the corner where we were sitting, so it came right into us, and that was pretty neat because it put them up 17-0,” Mike told Vikings Sports Now. “You got the feeling like if they don’t screw this up, they’re gonna be Super Bowl champs.”

Coach was stoked for Cooper’s TD 🔥 #FlyEaglesFly

📺: #SBLIX on FOX
📱: Tubi + NFL app pic.twitter.com/qTzzliJKD3

— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025

Mike Sirianni is the oldest of the three Sirianni brothers and has served as the head coach of Washington & Jefferson for over two decades. Nick Sirianni is the youngest, and with a 40-22 win against the Chiefs on Sunday night in New Orleans, is now a Super Bowl champion head coach. Jay Sirianni is the middle child, and while he isn’t a football coach anymore, he followed in the brothers’ father’s, Fran, footsteps and served as a successful high school head coach.

It’s a successful family. But Mike, at least, doesn’t want to compare his success (a .808-win percentage, which is seventh among all active college coaches with at least 10 seasons of coaching) to his youngest brother’s.

“Football is football, and I understand the level that I coach at, we’ve been very successful at W&J at this level,” Sirianni said. “But Nick is at the highest level with the pressure and everything that comes with it. …

“My dad has said it best because my middle brother was a high school coach, and he’s not anymore, but he said that all three of us were at the level we were meant to be at. I think we were all just meant to be where were supposed to be.”

Nick certainly proved that he was where he was supposed to be on Sunday. Nick, 43, has led the Eagles to the playoffs in each of his four seasons at the helm of the franchise, but he suffered some heartbreak in a 38-35 loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII two years ago. He reached the top of the mountain on Sunday night.

“I just think they persevered; you don’t have success without a little bit of adversity,” Mike said. “If you don’t fail, you don’t grow, that’s something we were taught at home from our parents. We were taught when we played at Mount Union that things are going to go bad, but how do you react? And I think I saw today a quote that said if that collapse in 2023 doesn’t happen, do they win this game, and he said he wasn’t so sure, so like I said, you can’t grow without a little bit of failure.”

The win against the Chiefs, which gives Nick a 6-3 career record in the playoffs and a Super Bowl ring (one of six active NFL head coaches with a ring), has earned him some respect at a national level. But he’s never been someone to care what anyone who doesn’t know him thinks about him.

“I don’t think he really cares what people think of him,” Mike said. “We’re proud of him that he’s the same person that he’s been his whole life. He does have a great coaching staff with a lot — Vic Fangio obviously is outstanding, been a coordinator for years. But I honestly don’t think he cares what people think. He does it the way we taught when we were younger and has been very successful.”

Still, winning in the NFL is hard. Mike and Nick weren’t born in Pittsburgh, but with their parents hailing from Pittsburgh, they grew up Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Mike Tomlin hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 2009 — hasn’t won a playoff game since 2017.

So, while Nick is enjoying the win now (and gearing up for a title defense in 2025-26), Mike knows better than maybe anyone that he isn’t satisfied.

“The last coach in Philadelphia who won a Super Bowl there isn’t the coach anymore, so you better keep winning in that town,” Mike said.

Jordan Sirianni, the daughter of Mike Sirianni, holds the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans

It’s only been a couple of days since the Super Bowl title though. So, while the future is unpredictable, there’s no time like the present. Mike and his family returned from New Orleans on Monday evening, following three days of festivities and the game itself.

Mike and his wife Jennifer, and their daughters Jenna and Jordan, went down for three days. It was a hectic but fun experience that the Sirianni family was able to share. It’s still surreal for Mike.

And surreal is how Mike describes the entire experience — and how far Nick has come in his coaching journey.

“I’ve said this before in numerous interviews, it’s still a surreal experience,” Mike said. “I’m proud of him because he’s still the same person he’s always been, he hasn’t changed with all the success and all the fame, and it’s still surreal. We’re not Steelers fans anymore, but we were Steelers fans growing up obviously with my parents being from Pittsburgh, we’re not from Pittsburgh but my parents are, and just watching Terry Bradshaw present him the NFC trophy and then the Lombardi Trophy yesterday, I’m just kind of in amazement still. It’s so surreal to see that.”

Mike will always remember Super Bowl LIX. And if it’s not for DeJean (and it will be), it will be for the joy shared by the family. And the roar of the Eagles fans in attendance at the Caesars Superdome.

“Eagles home games are crazy, they’re like a college atmosphere,” Mike said. “But for supposedly a neutral site, it wasn’t a neutral site in terms of fans. Eagles’ fans far outnumbered Chiefs fans, so that was pretty neat to see.”