The name Shanahan is football royalty thanks to Mike Shanahan and his son, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.
In addition to winning back-to-back Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos, Mike is one of the NFL’s most influential coaches ever. His star-studded coaching tree features the likes of Sean McVay, Liam Coen, Kevin Stefanski, Matt LaFleur, Kevin O’Connell, Dave Canales and Klint Kubiak.
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With Indiana playing in tonight’s College Football Playoff National Championship, another Mike Shanahan enters the spotlight in Indiana’s offensive coordinator. But no, there is no relation to the aforementioned Shanahans.
Indiana’s Mike Shanahan worked his way up the coaching ranks with Curt Cignetti after a playing career at Pittsburgh and a couple cups of coffee with the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The former wide receiver coached that position at IUP, Elon and James Madison under Cignetti, and Shanahan earned a promotion to offensive coordinator when he followed Cignetti to Indiana after the 2023 season.
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza has thrived under Shanahan’s tutelage, winning the Heisman Trophy and being widely projected to go No. 1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders in the 2026 NFL Draft. That type of development of a transfer quarterback gets coaches on the national radar, so if you see Shanahan in rumors for a bigger job, just know he isn’t one of those Shanahans.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Is Indiana OC Mike Shanahan related to 49ers coach?
