Why Oklahoma State football game at West Virginia is 'special experience' for Nardo family
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Kathy Nardo has seen a lot of football in her 91 years, but on Saturday afternoon, when she settles into her seat at West Virginia University’s Milan Puskar Stadium, she’ll get to witness something she never imagined.
Two of her grandsons coaching against each other.
In fact, she’s never been in the stadium to see either of those grandsons — Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo and West Virginia graduate assistant Luke Nardo — coach a game individually.
Yet when Luke and the Mountaineers host Bryan and the Cowboys at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Kathy can check that goal off her list.
“This’ll be a first for her, so that’s really cool,” Luke told The Oklahoman on Wednesday. “It’s not every day you get to go against your brother, and it just so happens that it’s so close to our hometown.
“We come from a big family and it’s really special that we’re gonna have at least 50 family members at this game on Saturday.”
Perry Nardo, Bryan and Luke’s father, began organizing the plan for his mother to attend the game as soon as he saw it on the schedule.
Perry and wife Jayme will pick up his mother from the family home in Key, Ohio, and make the 90-minute drive to Milan Puskar Stadium well in advance of the game.
“We’ll take her to the entrance where Oklahoma State gets off the bus so she can see Bryan,” Perry said. “Then we’ll take her over to the other side of the stadium where Luke, with WVU, will be doing their team walk. She wanted to see both of those.”
Kathy gets around well for her age, but the family was fortunate enough to receive some suite tickets that will allow her to stay out of the elements and avoid any long walks up and down stadium stairs.
While the Nardos expect a large family contingent at the stadium on Saturday, a few key members will be absent. Matt Nardo, Bryan and Luke’s older brother, is the head coach at Bluffton (Ohio) University, and Saturday is homecoming for the Beavers.
“When we first saw this on the schedule, we actually joked around with my wife that she should go to Morgantown instead, because how often do you have two brothers match up like this at the Power Five level?” Matt said. “It’s a cool experience.
“So we joked with her about going over there, and to be honest with you, I think it was only a joke because she didn’t want to make the drive with our three kids who are 4 and under. So she played it off like it was a joke, but I think if the kids were a little older, she would be heading to Morgantown.”
Luke, Bryan, and Matt Nardo
Bryan’s wife is also staying at home in Stillwater with their two young boys, but plenty of relatives will be in attendance.
“Yeah, but I don’t know how many of them will be rooting for the Pokes,” Bryan said with a wry smile. “No, I’m blessed to have a great family, very supportive.
“My younger brother is one of my best friends, if not my best friend, so it’ll be cool to compete against him, outside of playing noon hoops or something.”
Despite living so far apart, Bryan and Luke briefly crossed paths a few weeks ago. West Virginia had a game at TCU and OSU was off, so Bryan happened to be recruiting in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
“He waited and had a chance to see me for about 15 minutes,” Luke said. “You don’t get to see your family that often, so getting to see him down there meant a lot to me. It really made my day, him waiting there to talk to me for 15 minutes.”
At 37, Bryan is 11 years older than Luke, yet the two still were quite close during their youth.
“Those two are more competitive with each other than I am with Luke,” said Matt, who is three years older than Bryan. “I was the biggest brother and taking care of them. Luke and B., they’re still the ones who wanna go out there and play best-of-five one-on-one basketball.
“I was the one that was smart enough to know my knees need a break. Or they’ll tell you I just couldn’t guard them, and that’s probably true, too. But they’ve been competing against each other for as long as I can remember.”
This isn’t the first time two of the Nardo boys have coached in the same game. Matt and Bryan were both on staff at Division II Emporia State from 2014-17, Matt as offensive coordinator and Bryan as defensive coordinator. So they regularly went head-to-head in practices and scrimmages.
Bryan and Luke were in line to face off once before, when Bryan was at Emporia and Luke at conference opponent Nebraska-Kearney in 2020. But Bryan was hired as the linebackers coach at Youngstown State.
Like Matt and Bryan, Luke began his coaching career as a student assistant at Ohio University. After one season at Nebraska-Kearney, he was hired as a graduate assistant at Ohio for the 2021-22 season before landing at West Virginia.
Last December, Luke was a grad assistant at Ohio, finishing his Master’s degree and trying to figure out what his next step would be. Bryan was the defensive coordinator at Gannon University, a Division II school in Erie, Pennsylvania, with no possible clue that he’d be getting a call from OSU coach Mike Gundy in mid-January, and eventually getting hired as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator.
Ten months later, they’re coaching against each other.
“This is stuff we really didn’t think would happen,” Matt said. “It’s pretty neat.
“I told them I hope Oklahoma State wins 2-0. That’d be outstanding. Bryan gets a safety and they pitch a shutout. I don’t think Coach Gundy would be too happy about only scoring two, but I think that’d be about the perfect way for that game to play out for the Nardo family.”
With Kathy in the stadium, Saturday’s experience will be hard to top, regardless of the final score.
Kathy, of course, spent plenty of time watching her grandsons grow up. When they were young, the boys would frequent their grandparents’ small farm in Key, just a few miles from their Shadyside home.
Cousins, aunts and uncles would gather there, too, for holidays, special occasions or just something to do on the weekends.
“It’s an awesome spot,” Luke said. “There’s a lot of great memories out there. A lot of weekends cutting grass. We love it out there, we all do.”
To have her in the stadium Saturday will be an indescribably fitting moment.
“All four of the grandparents were such big role models in all the boys’ lives,” Perry said, referencing Kathy and Joe Nardo as well as Paul and Shirley Moczek.
“Now, to be able to have at least one of their grandparents take part in something like this is a special experience for all of us. It’s really a wonderful thing.”
