Nick Sirianni was just beginning his sophomore year at Mount Union when Bill Belichick became head coach of the Patriots.
On Sunday - six Super Bowl championships, nine Super Bowl appearances, 298 regular-season wins and 31 postseason wins later - Belichick faces Sirianni for the first time.
Sirianni studies franchises and general managers and owners and schemes, but more than anything he studies head coaches, and he’s spent a lot of time over the last 23 years studying Belichick.
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“I'm always fascinated by people who are consistent, and that's what his career has been - this unbelievable consistency of success,” Sirianni said Tuesday. “And so that's what I'm always fascinated about.
“Every time you watch his defense play, you see the fundamentals on display. You see the smart situations on display, the situational football intelligence on display. I guess a lot of those things have inspired me to say, ‘Hey, what's important to winning football games?’ Well, football IQ and fundamentals.
“Hey, the core values are a direct reflection of great coaches and teams I've studied in the past, and he's obviously at the top of that list.”
Belichick and Sirianni both played Division 3 football, both reached a Super Bowl in their second year as a head coach, both began their head coaching careers with one of the top young quarterbacks in the league, both replaced a coach who at some point in their career won a Super Bowl.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles face the Patriots at 4:25 p.m. Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. This is Sirianni’s third season with the Eagles, Belichick’s 24th with the Patriots.
And as much as this week is about studying the Patriots, it's also about studying Belichick.
You need to understand your enemy before you go to battle.
“You try to turn over every stone you possibly can looking for answers and different things,” Sirianni said. “Anybody that's been around coach Belichick, you're always asking questions about, whether it's scheme or whether it’s coaching philosophies. I've always been fascinated by him and his coaching tree.”
Sirianni spent the 2012 season on Romeo Crennel’s Chiefs staff with current Giants head coach Brian Daboll, who had been with Belichick from 2002 through 2006 and then rejoined him from 2013 through 2016. And Crennel was Belichick’s defensive coordinator from 2001 through 2004.
And this past April, Sirianni hired long-time Belichick assistant Matt Patricia as senior defensive assistant. Patricia was with Belichick in a variety of roles on both sides of the ball from 2004 through 2017 and again in 2021 and 2022.
“Brian Daboll, a big mentor to me,” Sirianni said. “And then just how big of a help coach Patricia has been to me as well, just with general coaching philosophies and also scheme-wise.”
It’s not like Sirianni hired Patricia just to pick his brain about Belichick. But … hey, maybe he did.
“It’s just the daily process of questions – ‘Hey, what would Bill do in this situation right here,’ kind of things. Those are constant conversations, and I feel like I just have a good tap into him from guys that he's been around for a long time.
“I'm honored that I'm able to do that. Because when we show a play or a route or something like that, we show our guys how to do it, from great players of the past, great plays we've made here as Eagles.
“It's no different as coaches. You want to study great coaches of the past and present and just try to perfect your craft. … And so what you ask questions about is the process, daily operations, all those different things.”
The Patriots aren’t what they used to be.
They’ve gone at least four straight years without a playoff win for the first time since 1987 through 1995 and four years without a Super Bowl appearance for the first time since 1997 through 2000.
They’re 25-25 since Tom Brady left, and they’re four-point underdogs to the Eagles on Sunday, only the seventh time under Belichick they’ve been a home underdog of at least four points.
But all that aside, that is a legend and a first-ballot Hall of Famer on the other sideline.
“Of course, you're going to look for every advantage you can get,” Sirianni said. “And that's what we're doing this week.”