BRED & BUTTER
49ers coach Shanahan learned to lean on run from 2-time champ dad
MIAMI — If Mike and Kyle Shanahan were not father and son, they could be twins.
At least in the football sense of the word.
“They’re identical,” said Bobby Turner, an assistant coach under both generations. “Coach [Mike] Shanahan is one of the best of the best. Obviously blood, but why not follow the best of the best?”
Turner won two Super Bowls as running backs coach under Mike during 18 seasons with the Broncos, and also was on his Redskins staff. Turner could win his third ring Sunday, as the 70-year-old coaching the same position for 40-year-old Kyle’s 49ers.
That résumé makes him a leading expert on Shanahan-isms, the particulars of which he is too loyal to share.
“The main things are they are leaders, they mean what they say,” Turner told The Post, “and they are doggone thorough.”
If the 49ers beat the Chiefs, Mike and Kyle will become the first fatherson duo of Super Bowl-winning coaches. The only other pair to win as head coaches in the playoffs is Bum and Wade Phillips.
“The similarity is the emphasis,” said NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci, who coached against the elder Shanahan. “They emphasize the run game. The run game is similar in some ways with the zone, but Kyle’s offense, in particular the run game, is fun to watch on film because it is multiple — whether it’s the inside zone or t he stretch play or the oneback power or the draws or the traps.”
Ky l e got his start as a UCLA graduate assistant in 2003, his f irst NFL job with the Buccaneers and his f i rst position coach assignment with the Texans when they were led by his father’s ex-right-hand man Gary Kubiak. He j oined his father’s staff as
Redskins offensive coordinator in 2010, and whispers of nepotism flowed.
“I wanted to be an offensive coach — I played offense my whole life — and all he told me is, ‘Don’t study offense. Study defense. The offense will come natural. You better know what to do on defense,’” Kyle said. “That’s the best advice he gave me. You don’t just put in a play to put it in. You put in a play based on what the defense is doing.”
The last time the 49ers won a Super Bowl, following the 1994 season, Mike was the offensive coordinator and 15-year-old Kyle was a ball boy during the season. He wore a Deion Sanders jersey during Super Bowl week and held the cord for his father’s headphones on game day.
“This is what you work for, all the hours you put in and all the places you moved to,” Mike said after Kyle’s last victory, “and when you do get your opportunity you want to take advantage of it.”
As Kyle got older, he no longer was around as just a son. He was a student, too.
“I could tell it was something he was very interested in when we had meetings and he was paying attention,” Turner said. “Kyle’s dad had success with the scheme. He knew it like the back of his hand. Kyle knows it like the back of his hand, too.”
The Shanahans’ grooming of ball boys continued in Denver. Mike McDaniel went from that position to coaching intern under Mike Shanahan in 2005 to meeting Kyle on Kubiak’s Texans staff. He now is the 49ers’ rungame coordinator.
“Man, they are able to burden of a lot of stress,” McDaniel told The Post. “They pride themselves on being extremely accountable and setting the standards, but believing in people and giving them the opportunity to meet those standards.”
Mike Shanahan arrived in Miami late this week, joining the 49ers at their team hotel. Two weeks ago, Mike handed Kyle the NFC’s George Halas Trophy — and was drawn in for an emotional on-camera hug. The scene could be more poignant Sunday.
“He is a product of his father,” McDaniel said. “He has personality traits and idiosyncrasies passed on through the gene pool — and there are plenty of things he leans on him for advice — but what makes both of them who they are is they are their own individual people in a very authentic way.”