Lost in the gush of superlatives on the San Francisco 49ers’ offense, forgotten amid the pantheon of talent, is the intense guy up in the booth, the one with the headphones.
Mike Shanahan is the orchestrator behind the 49ers’ recent crescendo-the leap in offensive production from an average of 23.6 points in the first six games to 38 points in the past five, from an average of 366 net yards per game early in the season to the five-game average of 449. But he’s not getting much attention.
This is not a shock. There’s only one non-player who gets credit when the 49ers’ offense is clicking, and he’s about to hit the recruiting trail for Stanford. Every coach who comes to the team in an offensive capacity is viewed only as a caretaker of Bill Walsh’s playbook. And when Shanahan was hired two off-seasons ago, he had another strike against him-not only was he not the genius, he never had worked under Walsh.
Twenty-nine games, 803 points and 11,299 yards later, Shanahan’s lineage no is longer quite as suspect.
“My job is to perform,” Shanahan said this week. “My job is not to get a lot of notoriety. Where the credit goes is not important to me.”
Funny, that’s not the reputation Shanahan has been saddled with much of his career. He has been perceived as a guy with an ego, a guy who wants control. That all started when he was fired as head coach of the Raiders for not kowtowing to Al Davis. When he was fired as offensive coordinator in Denver, the scuttlebutt was that he and John Elway were conspiring against the head coach, Dan Reeves. When he came to the 49ers, the question was how soon would he jump to a head-coaching job.
But Shanahan fooled everyone. He has been comfortable in a job where-probably more than any other in the NFL-he isn’t going to get credit if he’s doing well. And he has stayed, even passing up the head-coaching job he supposedly always wanted, rejecting Denver last off-season in favor of a hefty raise and a three-year contract extension.
Shanahan prefers not to talk much about why he didn’t take the Denver job. He’s still a little defensive, and you can’t blame him after his experiences with Davis and Reeves. But he is honest about his desire to be a head coach and if you read between the lines, you can tell Denver wasn’t going to be the right place for him.
“My goal is to be a head coach again someday, but I want it to be the right situation,” he said. “I was a head coach at 35, and I didn’t get the opportunity to really be a head coach. I didn’t have as much authority (with the Raiders) as I do here. The next opportunity, I want to make sure I can control my own destiny and make my own decisions.”
The key phrase in that statement is “as I do here.” Shanahan, 41, knows what it’s like to have his hands tied, and George Seifert has given Shanahan plenty of independence in running the offense.
“I have a lot of confidence in George,” Shanahan said. “He understands both sides of football, and he allows me to do the job. That’s why I enjoy it here. He lets his coaches coach, but he keeps his thumb on everything.”
The players give Shanahan credit for getting them through the rocky times this season, when complaints threatened to rip apart the offense.
“That gave Mike an opportunity to air it out in meetings,” said 49ers quarterback Steve Young. “Mike was the one who handled that well by not being afraid of it. He kept a cool head about him.”
Shanahan, who is credited with developing Elway, said he never has been around such a potent offense. And he has the good sense not to mess with it much.
“He’s kept the team rolling, and he’s done it quietly,” tight end Jamie Williams said. “I’ve been around a lot of offensive coordinators, and he’s done a surprising job of not implementing his vision, but looking at what he has and enhancing it.”
Young, who was tight with Shanahan’s predecessor, Mike Holmgren, clicked with Shanahan right away. He is “grateful” Shanahan stayed, and Young said he learns from Shanahan every day.
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Shanahan challenged his team early in training camp to be the best 49ers offense ever. Critics scoffed. How could this be the best offense ever without Walsh or Joe Montana? But Shanahan and his players are meeting the challenge.
“I haven’t been on a roll like this with any football team,” Shanahan said. “It’s quite fun.”
Young says that’s the reason Shanahan decided to stay in a job where he isn’t making headlines.
“I think he saw the potential in this group,” Young said.
And you can bet, it won’t be long before Shanahan gets another opportunity to control his destiny.