New OC Shanahan All Set For Play-Calling Role

Those who know him well insist Mike Shanahan is equipped for the gig.

The third-year James Madison assistant was promoted to offensive coordinator during the short offseason. He’ll call plays for the first time in his young coaching career this Saturday when the No. 2 Dukes host Morehead State in their season opener.

“He’s got an ability to manage, lead people, and his feel for the game is good, too,” JMU coach Curt Cignetti said.

Cignetti initially hired Shanahan, the former Pittsburgh receiver, in 2016 onto his staff at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania to coach the position Shanahan used to play. Shanahan has been with Cignetti in that capacity since, with a two-year stint at Elon ahead of arriving in Harrisonburg.

Along the way, Shanahan earned recruiting coordinator responsibilities and only increased the level of trust Cignetti has in him.

Perhaps, that’s why the ex-All-Big East performer – less than a decade removed from his own college days – felt so comfortable advocating for himself when Shane Montgomery, JMU’s OC the past two seasons, bolted for FBS Buffalo after the spring.

“I just went to [Cignetti] and told him I’d be very interested,” Shanahan said about how he landed the offensive coordinator job, “and I wanted an opportunity to talk further about it. And him and I had a couple of conversations over the next few days, and one thing led to another and he ended up giving me an opportunity. But it was just a couple of casual talks, nothing too formal, and I kind of thought the past four or five years with him were sort of like my interview.”

Anyone to spend time with Shanahan on the gridiron would agree, the approach he’s taken toward the game hasn’t changed since he played. He leans on his work ethic and his proven results to gain the respect of his superiors, peers and players to push forward.

Brian Brozeski can recall the dilemma Shanahan faced about whether or not he’d stick with football just as he was starting to grasp the sport at Norwin High School in western Pennsylvania.

At the time, Brozeski, a former Penn State football player, coached boys basketball and was the wide receivers coach for the football team there at Norwin.

Shanahan came from a basketball family. His dad and three of his uncles all played basketball in college, so Shanahan had the pedigree and the height, at 6-foot-5, to warrant prioritizing hoops over football. He played basketball his whole life, according to Brozeski, but joined the football team in eighth grade after some convincing from Brozeski.

“So he was debating,” Brozeski said, “because he loved basketball and was getting basketball looks, about whether or not to play [football] his junior year.

“But then Mike ended up showing up on Day 2 or Day 3 of [training] camp. It was the happiest moment of my life because you always want a 6-5 receiver, but you’re not sure how the rest of the kids are going to react because he was someone who wasn’t sure about if he wanted to still play. And then, he was late to camp.”

Brozeski said Shanahan’s first few practices back that year provided a glimpse into the future about how the then-high school junior had his own, unique ways of connecting with teammates to fit in with them again.

“Without missing a beat, and Mike didn’t get any special treatment,” Brozeski said, “he earned the respect of his teammates by doing the extra, asking questions and putting time in physically and mentally the next couple of weeks. I think that helped him not only as an athlete, but as a person. And I think that’s one of the things that makes him a great coach. He’s been through so many different scenarios in his own life that he can rationalize with other athletes who are in similar situations. He can speak from experience.”

It’s helped Shanahan certainly on the recruiting trail for the Dukes over the last few years. He’s spearheaded their efforts as their recruiting coordinator, and created a pipeline from one of Northern Virginia’s powers because of the way he’s cultivated relationships with prospects.

Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn has had a commit to JMU in each of the last three recruiting classes.

“He’s our guy, that’s Shanahan,” longtime Stone Bridge coach Mickey Thompson said. “He’s accessible. He’s easy to get a hold of. You can talk to him.”

Thompson said Shanahan is one of the key reasons why JMU landed Mikail Kamara two cycles ago and Skylar Martin, a 3-star linebacker with offers from some Power Five schools like Louisville and Virginia, last year. Martin may contribute this fall for the Dukes.

“The [others] didn’t try to maintain that relationship and Shanahan was all over Skylar,” Thompson said. “And Skylar got a little senioritis with the covid year, but Shanahan showed Skylar that he was important to them. It was like ‘Oh we got to get these grades straight, we’ve got to work on this,’ and that’s what you need. You need someone who will be working with you the whole time and not just throwing the offer out. Shanahan followed through.”

Shanahan went onto have terrific junior and senior campaigns at Norwin, becoming an Associated Press Pennsylvania All-State first-team choice, while garnering scholarship offers from Akron, Duke, Georgia Tech, Indiana and West Virginia before heading off to nearby Pitt.

Brozeski said in those last two prep years, Shanahan started to absorb the details of the game that he hadn’t yet before.

“There were some nuances he didn’t know early since he hadn’t played,” Brozeski said, “… But then he not only bought into the aspect of being a receiver, but I was really proud of how he learned to be a dominant blocker and that paid dividends for him moving onto the college realm and then moving to playing in the NFL.

“He did something – and I’ve been coaching football for 20 years now – he stalk-blocked a kid, and I really think this is what got him a D-I scholarship. He stalk-blocked a kid in the open field, and first of all that’s hard to do, but fits the kid and presses the kid off his feet, presses the kid up in the air. It was the most impressive block I’ve ever seen.”

By the time Bobby Engram was hired at Pitt to coach wide receivers, Shanahan was a senior and had already played for head coaches Dave Wannstedt and Todd Graham, and had offensive coordinators Matt Cavanaugh and Frank Cignetti Jr., Curt’s brother, previously — so he had already learned from some accomplished coaches.

Engram was part of Paul Chryst’s first Panthers staff, and it didn’t take long for Shanahan and Engram to connect. Shanahan said if he had to name one influential person in his career, it’d be Engram, who now coaches tight ends for the Baltimore Ravens.

“Mike was a player who wanted to understand the big picture and the whole concept of the play,” Engram said. “And I knew from there, we were going to be able to utilize him in a number of different roles because he knew the entire offense. He worked hard, took a lot of pride in every aspect of the game and that’s whether he was run blocking or catching a pass or running a clear-out route. He approached everything with the same intensity, which I thought really helped him be a better player.”

Under Engram’s watch, Shanahan thrived in his most impactful season with Pitt while hauling in 62 catches for 983 yards and six touchdowns. He had three 100-yard games – against Virginia Tech, South Florida and Gardner-Webb.

More importantly, Shanahan began to show the potential necessary if he wanted to ultimately pursue coaching.

“Absolutely,” Engram, the eighth-year Ravens assistant, said. “He was a very smart football player. Very detailed-oriented and just had a great football IQ in the understanding not only of the Xs and Os, but of the entire game. And so, I might have even talked to him about [coaching] and his approach.”

Engram, a former standout as a player at Penn State and then in the NFL for 14 seasons, has served as a mentor to Shanahan since the year they spent together at Pitt. They stay in touch, and Engram has been a sounding board for Shanahan, who already is logging long hours as in his new daily routine as Dukes OC.

“Whenever I come in the morning,” Shanahan said, “I try to do coordinator-type duties whether it’s getting practice scripts ready, having a game plan ready and studying film and other things as well. And as the morning goes on, I’m focused on the receivers and it’s what I need to do for them with key coaching points, adjustments and making sure I have that ready to go. And at night, I shift back and make sure I see the big picture, watch the O-Line and watch all the positions closely on offense.”

Engram said it’s not surprising to see Shanahan in a coordinator position already, and he expects Shanahan to do well. Shanahan is in his eighth year of coaching, having served as a volunteer assistant and then graduate assistant at his alma mater before joining Cignetti’s staff at IUP.

“Everyone is on their own timetable and his just happened to be a little faster,” Engram said. “But we talk quite a bit. He’d call me to get some advice and we’d talk through some different options, but I’d try to give him the big picture and talk through the pros and cons of a decision he’d have to make.

“I’d never tell him what to do, but I would say, ‘This is been my experience as a coach whether it’s been in the college ranks or NFL,’ and help him make an informed decision. It was more philosophy, not Xs and Os though we did talk about it, but philosophy for organization, leadership and all the things that are transferable skills from when you were playing that you’ve just got to figure out how to do as a coach.”

Like Engram had with Shanahan, Shanahan has had with individual receivers at JMU.

Under Shanahan’s tutelage, former JMU receiver Brandon Polk excelled to earn All-Colonial Athletic Association honors in 2019 with 74 catches for 1,179 yards and 11 touchdowns, and this past spring freshman Antwane Wells Jr. evolved into a nightmare matchup for opposing cornerbacks in one-on-one situations. Wells Jr. caught six touchdowns including four in the postseason for the Dukes.

One area Shanahan has perfected so far as OC far is his ability to connect with others.

He’s had no problem expanding his focus from only working with wide receivers to dealing with the entire offense and a team of assistants.

JMU is seeking to build on its production from this past spring when it averaged 33.6 points per game and 448.1 total yards per contest.

“He’s definitely expanded his communication,” Dukes sixth-year senior quarterback Cole Johnson said. “But I don’t think he’s changed too much as a person. He’s still the same guy and you can always come to him, so he’s been really good as offensive coordinator. I’m just bouncing things off him with what he likes and what he doesn’t like and I think as he progresses in that role, he’ll get a lot better, too.”

Said fifth-year senior running back Percy Agyei-Obese about Shanahan: “He’s just taken the reins and running with it. And I think everyone is excited to see what he’s going to put on the field.”

Johnson said he can see the collaboration, particularly, between Shanahan, Cignetti and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri in the offense and on the field at practice. Shanahan and Sunseri, the former Pitt quarterback, played together in college.

“It’s always a group effort,” Shanahan said. “We’re always going to be talking as an offensive staff in game with what we want to get to next and what can we take advantage of, so it’s going to be a culmination of things. And I’m looking forward to it because we have a really nice offensive staff and Coach Cignetti with his expertise on offense, too, and so between the five or six of us, it’s going to be fun.”

Shanahan’s offensive outlook isn’t all that different from Cignetti’s. Shanahan said he’ll prioritize a strong run game and minimizing turnovers, but seeks explosive plays especially in the passing game.

Johnson said Shanahan has incorporated some ideas Sunseri brought with him from Alabama – after serving as a Crimson Tide staffer working with quarterbacks for the last two seasons – that fit with what JMU wants to do.

Shanahan said he’s enjoyed working with Sunseri again and for the first time since their playing days.

“I would say [offenses have] changed a good amount,” Shanahan said of how the sport has evolved since he starred at Pitt. “However, things are starting to circle back. We played in pro style, spread, we played in it all and you kind of went through the phase when everyone was playing fast, getting a ton of plays off and then you look at some teams now really being in a mixture of everything. [Offenses are] able to play fast, able to shift and motion, able to change up the tempo. So, I think it’s changed, but also circling back around.”

Of the wrinkles Shanahan and company have added to JMU’s offense for this fall, Johnson said: “It’s been really good. It’s not too different, but you’ll see a little different come September 4th,” when Shanahan calls plays for the first time outside of the Dukes’ two preseason intrasquad scrimmages.

“I felt like we were doing things that Cole did well,” Shanahan said of how he plans to build off of some of the success the offense had last season. “With getting the ball out of his hands quick, finding ways to run the ball and doing certain schemes that our offensive line was getting good at with the younger guys in there.

“I felt like we just kept building week to week with looking hard at game plans and films to make sure we were attacking defenses and not letting them dictate to us what we were doing. So, we want to dictate to them and I feel like we’re going to continue to do that and keep finding ways to score points.”