In his seventh season as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Kyle Shanahan has established himself as one of the elite coaches in the NFL today. And he is one win away from joining a legendary — and small — list of head coaches to win a Super Bowl for the 49ers.
Although still fairly young by coaching standards, he had a long list of stops on his coaching resume before arriving in San Francisco. Here’s a look back at his coaching career.
Kyle Shanahan’s Coaching Career
The road for Shanahan to get to his head coaching opportunity in San Francisco was, as is the case with many coaches, an extensive one. It began when he served as a graduate assistant at UCLA in 2003 following his graduation from the University of Texas.
After one season with the Bruins, he joined the NFL ranks, as Jon Gruden of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired him in 2004 to join his staff as an offensive quality control coach. He spent two seasons with the Buccaneers before moving on to Houston, where he was hired for his first positional coaching job.
Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, who was once an offensive coordinator with the Denver Broncos under Shanahan’s father, Mike Shanahan, brought Shanahan on to his staff in 2006 as a wide receivers coach. At 26, Shanahan was the youngest position assistant coach in the NFL.
After one season, Shanahan was named the Texans’ quarterbacks coach, and in 2008, he was promoted to offensive coordinator, becoming the youngest to hold that title in the NFL at just 28 years of age.
When his father became the head coach with Washington, Shanahan joined him in 2010 to be the offensive coordinator. He spent four seasons in that role in Washington, but after the team finished outside the top 10 in total offense three times in those four seasons, the coaching staff was let go after the 2013 season.
Shanahan spent the next three seasons as offensive coordinator with the Browns (2014) and Falcons (2015-16) before getting his first head coaching position with the 49ers in 2017. (He would also serve as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator during his first four seasons in San Francisco).
After two losing seasons to begin his head coaching career, Shanahan has turned around the 49ers franchise, recording double-digit wins in three of his last four seasons.
Has Shanahan Coached in a Super Bowl?
While this will be Shanahan’s second trip to the Super Bowl as the 49ers head coach, Sunday will actually be his third trip to the big game in a coaching capacity. In 2016, Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for the Falcons when they reached Super Bowl LI.
Unfortunately for Shanahan, that game is best known for the historic comeback victory by the New England Patriots, who rallied from a 28-3 deficit in the second half to beat the Falcons, 34-28, in overtime.
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As a head coach, Shanahan led the 49ers to Super Bowl LVI against the Kansas City Chiefs following the 2019 regular season. Once again, a Shanahan team let a double-digit lead get away, this time seeing a 20-10 advantage with seven minutes left evaporate. The Chiefs scored three touchdowns in the final 6:13 to pull out a 31-20 win.
With a win over the Chiefs Sunday, Shanahan will join Bill Walsh and George Seifert as coaches to lead the 49ers to a Super Bowl victory. But Shanahan (44 years old) would be much younger than both Walsh (50) and Seifert (49) were at the time of their first Super Bowl championship.
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