YOUNGSTOWN – Two football coaches who grew up in Youngstown and coached in the Big Ten just last year will open the season on opposing sidelines.

Youngstown State and Pittsburgh announced on Friday that their season debut matchup will kick off at 1 p.m. on Sept. 5. The showdown is the debut for YSU’s Bo Pelini and Pittsburgh’s Pat Narduzzi. Both are Youngstown natives.

Pelini spent the last seven seasons as the head coach at Nebraska, while Narduzzi, who played linebacker at YSU in 1985, was Michigan State’s defensive coordinator for eight years.

The last time the teams met was in September of 2012, when the Penguins recorded their first win over a BCS opponent in one of the “Power Five” conferences. The 31-17 victory was the Pitt head coaching debut of then-coach Paul Chryst. The Panthers hold a 2-1 lead in the all-time series. The 2015 game will air live on ESPN3 and 570-AM WKBN.

The two coaches will be the story.

Narduzzi is a 1985 Ursuline High School graduate, while Pelini graduated from Cardinal Mooney High School, the Irish’s arch rival, in 1986. Narduzzi’s father, Bill, was the head coach at YSU from 1975 to 1985. Pat, who left YSU after 1985 to play at Rhode Island, made coaching stops at Miami (Ohio), Rhode Island, Northern Illinois and Cincinnati before settling in and putting together one of the top defensive teams in the nation at Michigan State.

Pelini played at Ohio State after starring at quarterback and defensive back for the Cardinals. He then coached at Iowa, Cardinal Mooney, in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers, before returning to the college ranks.

His first stint at Nebraska, as defensive coordinator, was in 2003 before he left for Oklahoma, then LSU and then back to Nebraska as the head coach in 2008. He was hired at YSU in December of 2014.

Call the YSU ticket office at 330-941-1978 for more information. The ticket office is located in the north end of Stambaugh Stadium. Ticket office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.