Mike Shanahan
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| Mike Shanahan | |
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| Date of birth | August 24, 1952 |
| Place of birth | Oak Park, Illinois |
| Position(s) | Head Coach |
| College | Eastern Illinois |
| Career record | 138-90-0 (Regular Season) 8-5 (Postseason) 146-95-0 (Overall) |
| Super Bowl wins |
1998 Super Bowl XXXIII 1997 Super Bowl XXXII |
| Championships won |
1998 AFC Championship 1997 AFC Championship |
| Stats | |
| Coaching stats | Pro Football Reference |
| Coaching stats | DatabaseFootball |
| Team(s) as a coach/administrator | |
| 1975 1976-1977 1978 1979 1980-1983 1984-1985 1986-1987 1988-1989 1989-1991 1992-1994 1995-2008 |
University of Oklahoma (Offensive Assistant) Northern Arizona University (Running Backs Coach) Eastern Illinois University (Offensive Coordinator) University of Minnesota (Offensive Coordinator) University of Florida (Offensive Coordinator) Denver Broncos (Quarterbacks Coach) Denver Broncos (Offensive Coordinator) Los Angeles Raiders (Head Coach) Denver Broncos (Quarterbacks Coach) San Francisco 49ers (Offensive Coordinator) Denver Broncos (Head Coach) |
Michael Edward Shanahan (born August 24, 1952) is a former American football head coach, most recently for the Denver Broncos. He led the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl victories in 1998 and 1999. His son is the Houston Texans Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan.
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[edit] Early career
Shanahan played high school football at East Leyden High School, Franklin Park, Illinois where he played wishbone quarterback. He had the single-game rushing record until 1976 when it was broken by Dennis Cascio. The record is now held by Ricky Emery. Shanahan was an undersized quarterback at Eastern Illinois University in the 1970s before a hard hit on the practice field ruptured one of his kidneys, stopping his heart for thirty seconds and nearly killing him.[citation needed]
With his playing career abruptly ended, Shanahan entered coaching. After graduation, he served as an assistant coach at Northern Arizona University and the University of Oklahoma. He then returned to his alma mater as offensive coordinator and helped his school win the Division II football championship. Shanahan also worked at the University of Florida and the University of Minnesota, turning around both schools and making them into offensive powerhouses, before making the jump to the NFL.
[edit] NFL career
Shanahan served as a quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator for the Broncos under Dan Reeves in the 1980s and had a brief stint as the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1988–89. He went 8–12 with the Raiders in less than two seasons before being fired and returning to the Broncos as an offensive assistant again under Reeves. Shanahan was later fired by Reeves after finding himself in the middle of a growing feud between Reeves and quarterback John Elway.
[edit] San Francisco 49ers
In 1992, Shanahan was hired as offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers on George Seifert's staff, capping his rise with a Super Bowl victory after the 1994 season. The 49ers offense that year has been hailed as one of the greatest of all time, with the likes of Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Brent Jones, John Taylor, William Floyd and Ricky Watters scoring points in flurries. His years under Seifert placed him in the Bill Walsh coaching tree.
[edit] Denver Broncos
Shanahan's success with the 49ers earned him a head coaching spot once more, this time back in Denver with the Broncos beginning in 1995. Shanahan led Elway and the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl championships in the 1997 and 1998 seasons, during which time the Broncos set a then-record for victories in two seasons. He was the last coach to win two consecutive titles until New England's Bill Belichick did it during the 2003 and 2004 NFL seasons. Between 1996-1998, the Broncos set the NFL record for victories by going 46–10 over a three-year span. The 1998 Broncos won their first 13 games on their way to a 14–2 mark. Shanahan, taking his cue from West Coast offense guru Bill Walsh, was well-known for scripting the first 15 offensive plays of the game, and helped the '98 Broncos set an NFL record for first quarter points scored in a season.
Shanahan is known for a run-heavy variation of the West Coast offense he coached in San Francisco. He has often found unheralded running backs from later rounds of the annual NFL Draft and then turned them into league-leading rushers behind small-but-powerful offensive lines. Examples of this phenomenon are Terrell Davis, Mike Anderson, Olandis Gary, Reuben Droughns and Tatum Bell, all of whom have had at least one 1,000-yard season in a Denver uniform over the past 10 years.
Shanahan faced criticism for not delivering a playoff victory since Elway's retirement and Davis' career-ending injuries. The playoff drought ended on January 14, 2006 when the Broncos defeated the two-time defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in the AFC Divisional Round of the playoffs at Invesco Field at Mile High. Coincidentally, Shanahan has the best record for any active coach against Bill Belichick. Including the postseason win, Shanahan is 5–2 against Belichick's Patriots, the five wins coming in the last six meetings.
In 1999, with the assistance of writer Adam Schefter, Shanahan penned Think Like a Champion, a motivational book about leadership. It was published by Harper Collins.
On December 30, 2008, Shanahan was fired after the Broncos failed to make the playoffs during the 2008 NFL season.[1] It was the third consecutive year in which Denver didn't make the playoffs and the Broncos had spent most of the season well ahead of their division, only to lose the last three games (winning any of which would have guaranteed a playoff spot) and finishing with an 8-8 record. Shanahan had a coaching record of 24-24 over those three seasons. Former Broncos Kicker Jason Elam speaks about the firing of his longtime coach, "He’s a tremendous coach. I respect him a lot. He’s done a lot for that city and that organization. I was very surprised. I think most people were.”[2]
[edit] Head coaching record
| Team | Year | Regular Season | Post Season | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| LAR | 1988 | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| LAR | 1989 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| LAR Total | 15 | 17 | 0 | .400 | - | - | - | |||
| DEN | 1995 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| DEN | 1996 | 13 | 3 | 0 | .813 | 1st in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Jacksonville Jaguars in AFC Divisional Game. |
| DEN | 1997 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 2nd in AFC West | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | Super Bowl XXXII Champions. |
| DEN | 1998 | 14 | 2 | 0 | .875 | 1st in AFC West | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | Super Bowl XXXIII Champions. |
| DEN | 1999 | 6 | 10 | 0 | .375 | 5th in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| DEN | 2000 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 2nd in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Baltimore Ravens in AFC Wild-Card Game. |
| DEN | 2001 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| DEN | 2002 | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 2nd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| DEN | 2003 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Indianapolis Colts in AFC Wild-Card Game. |
| DEN | 2004 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Indianapolis Colts in AFC Wild-Card Game. |
| DEN | 2005 | 13 | 3 | 0 | .813 | 1st in AFC West | 1 | 1 | .500 | Lost to Pittsburgh Steelers in AFC Championship Game. |
| DEN | 2006 | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| DEN | 2007 | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 2nd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| DEN | 2008 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 2nd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
| DEN Total | 138 | 86 | 0 | .616 | 8 | 5 | .615 | |||
| Total[3] | 146 | 98 | 0 | .598 | 8 | 5 | .615 | |||
[edit] Accomplishments
- Posted the most wins in pro football history during a three-year period (46 in 1996–98).
- Won the most postseason games in history over a two-year period (seven, 1997–98).
- Been undefeated and untied for three consecutive regular seasons (1996–98) at home, just the second team ever to be undefeated and untied at home in three consecutive years. The Miami Dolphins posted three consecutive seasons of untied undefeated home records from 1972 to 1974. Including playoff games, the Dolphins had won 31 consecutive home games from 1971 to 1974. Oddly enough, in 1999 on the opening Monday Night Football game, the Miami Dolphins ended the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos streak with a 38–21 win in Denver.
- In 2004, he joined the exclusive club of head coaches to post 100 wins in his first 10 seasons with one club, finishing the campaign and decade tied for fourth on this ultra-impressive list of 12 coaches, six of whom are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
- Has the second most victories against the Oakland Raiders with a record of 20–6. Only Marty Schottenheimer has a better W–L record with a 27–6 record against the Raiders.
- Joins Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Belichick as the only six coaches to win back-to-back Super Bowls.
- He is the second coach in history to win two Super Bowl titles in his first four years coaching a team (Shula did it first with the Miami Dolphins in 1972 and 1973 and Belichick did it later, winning two Super Bowls in his first four seasons in New England in 2001 and 2003).
- Highest winning percentage in Denver history (.646).
- Shanahan is among seven coaches in pro football history to post four wins in one postseason along with Tom Flores, Joe Gibbs, Brian Billick, Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy and Tom Coughlin.
- The all-time high of 636 points in a season came from the 1994 Super Bowl Champion San Francisco 49ers, for whom Shanahan was the offensive coordinator. This was eclipsed during the 2007 season when the New England Patriots scored 589 points in the regular season and 66 points in the postseason for a total of 655 points.
- During his NFL career, Shanahan has been a part of teams that have played in 10 Conference Championship Games, in addition to his six Super Bowl appearances, five with Denver and Super Bowl XXIX with San Francisco.
[edit] Personal
Shanahan and his wife, Peggy, have two children—son Kyle and daughter Krystal. Kyle is a graduate of the University of Texas and is the Houston Texans’ offensive coordinator. Krystal also is a graduate of the University of Texas.
In May 2008, Shanahan attended the wedding of George W. Bush's daughter Jenna Bush, who was the former college roommate of Shanahan's daughter.[4][5]
[edit] References
- ^ Broncos fire Shanahan after 14 seasons as head coach
- ^ Falcons Notebook: Michael Turner racking up awards
- ^ Mike Shanahan Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks - Pro-Football-Reference.com
- ^ Jenna Bush Weds Henry Hager at President's Ranch
- ^ President Bush to play father of bride Saturday; Broncos' Shanahan to attend
[edit] External links
- Profile on DenverBroncos.com
- Mike Shanahan profile on NFL.com
- Pro Football Reference Page
- Database Football Page
- Inside the Mind of Mike Shanahan (Wall Street Journal article)
- Coaches Vote Shanahan Best Sideline Coach (CBS Sportsline article)
- Review of “Think Like a Champion” (NY Review of Books)
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Wade Phillips |
Denver Broncos Head Coaches 1995–2008 |
Succeeded by Josh McDaniels |
| Preceded by Mike Holmgren |
San Francisco 49ers Offensive Coordinators 1992–1994 |
Succeeded by Marc Trestman |
| Preceded by Tom Flores |
Oakland Raiders Head Coaches 1988–1989 |
Succeeded by Art Shell |
| Awards and achievements | ||
| Preceded by Mike Holmgren |
Super Bowl Winning Head Coaches Super Bowl XXXII, 1998 Super Bowl XXXIII, 1999 |
Succeeded by Dick Vermeil |
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