Is Mike Shanahan From Indiana Related To Kyle Shanahan?
No, Indiana offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan is not related to Kyle Shanahan or to Kyle’s famous NFL–coach dad, Mike Shanahan of Denver Broncos fame.
The confusion is totally understandable: same last name, same sport, and in this case, even the same first name as Kyle’s father. If you’ve ever watched an Indiana game and thought, “Wait, is that the Shanahan family?” you’re in good company.
Multiple outlets that bothered to clear this up spell it out pretty plainly: Indiana’s Mike Shanahan has no family connection to the Shanahan NFL coaching tree.
He’s built his own career in a different lane, college ball, wide receivers, and offensive coordination, while Kyle is the direct heir to the NFL version of the name.
In other words, this is one of those classic sports coincidences where the surname tricks your brain into inventing a family tree that just isn’t there.
There’s actually something refreshing about that. In a football world where “who is whose son” can feel like half the story, here’s a Mike Shanahan who didn’t come in on a famous dad’s coattails, even if he definitely ended up sharing a byline with them on the internet.
And yes, it probably means he’s been answering “So… are you related?” in press rooms and living rooms for years now.
Who is Mike Shanahan from Indiana?
Mike Shanahan from Indiana is a former Pitt wide receiver who worked his way up through the college ranks and now serves as Indiana University’s offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach under Curt Cignetti.
He’s not a legacy NFL kid; he’s more the classic “grind through small jobs, move every few years, and eventually get the clipboard” kind of football story.
He grew up in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and was a standout at Norwin High School, where he piled up close to 2,000 receiving yards and around 30 touchdown catches and earned repeated all-conference honors.
That résumé got him to the University of Pittsburgh, where he played wide receiver from 2008–2012 and finished with 159 receptions for 2,276 yards and 11 touchdowns, solid numbers that made him one of those reliable, productive college guys coaches love.
After a brief brush with the NFL, short stints with the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers organizations, he turned to coaching, starting as a volunteer and then graduate assistant at Pitt. From there, his career starts to look like the life of many modern college assistants:
- Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) as wide receivers coach in 2016.
- Elon University as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator in 2017–2018.
- James Madison University as receivers coach, then offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator, leading some very productive offenses.
In 2024, he followed Cignetti again, this time to Bloomington, taking over as Indiana’s offensive coordinator and receivers coach.
Indiana quickly leaned into its impact, locking him into a new multiyear deal through at least 2026 after their offensive surge under the new regime.
If you’ve watched Indiana suddenly look more organized and explosive on offense, that’s the ripple effect of a coach like Shanahan, not some secret connection to the Broncos’ playbook vault.
The thing that stands out with him is continuity: he’s been with Cignetti since the IUP days, growing from position coach to trusted play-caller.
That kind of long-term working relationship usually means two things: shared philosophy and a lot of late nights spent reworking third‑down concepts on whiteboards while eating bad takeout.
It’s not as glamorous as an NFL surname, but it’s very real, and it’s exactly how a lot of modern college offenses get built.
Who is Kyle Shanahan?
Kyle Shanahan is the son of longtime NFL head coach Mike Shanahan and the current head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, widely regarded as one of the sharpest offensive minds in the NFL.
Unlike Indiana’s Mike, Kyle is very much part of that well-known Shanahan coaching lineage that stretches back to Super Bowls in the 1990s.
He grew up inside the NFL world, tagging along as his dad climbed from assistant roles to head coach of Washington and, most famously, the Denver Broncos, where the elder Mike Shanahan won back-to-back Super Bowls after the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
Kyle played receiver in college, then shifted into coaching relatively young, eventually becoming an offensive coordinator in places like Houston, Washington, and Atlanta before landing the head job with the 49ers.
Off the field, Kyle’s family story is pretty rooted and steady: his parents are Mike and Peggy Shanahan, and he’s married to Mandy (Amanda) Shanahan, his high school sweetheart from Colorado.
The two married in 2005 and have three children, Stella, Carter, and Lexi, who’ve become familiar faces to fans who follow the human side of the league.
From a football standpoint, his identity is wrapped up in that blend of wide-zone run game and play‑action passing that’s become almost its own coaching tree.
His offenses are known for motion, misdirection, and making defenses hesitate just long enough to get burned, and he’s already led the 49ers to multiple deep playoff runs and Super Bowl appearances.
When people hear “Shanahan offense” on Sundays, they’re thinking about Kyle and his father’s combined influence, not the Indiana coordinator who just happens to share the same name.
Disclaimer: The content presented above is based on publicly available information about individuals with the last name "Shanahan" in the sports world, including their careers and personal backgrounds. Any resemblance to other individuals or their respective family connections is purely coincidental. All trademarks, product names, and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
