Scoring Knack -- Shanahan Keeps Improving as Offensive Coordinator
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Mike Shanahan knows offense. Specifically, Indiana’s offensive coordinator knows how to coach it, prepare it, refine it.
Then there’s the biggest goal of all -- score points.
It worked at James Madison, where Shanahan’s offense averaged 34.1 points per game in 2023, 37.0 in 2022, and 38.3 in 2021. The Dukes ran and passed with ruthless efficiency, averaging 418.5, 452.5 and 436.1 total yards per game in those seasons.
How will that translate to the Power 4 Conference level?
We’ll start finding out Saturday when IU opens its season against FIU at Memorial Stadium.
The numbers offer some insight, but receiver Omar Cooper Jr. has a deeper perspective.
“For Coach Shanahan, the little things really matter,” Cooper Jr. says. “He’s big on alignments and how we start off the ball. It really matters. It can make the difference in the route and in the plays you can make.”
This is among the reasons why head coach Curt Cignetti gave Shanahan his first offensive coordinator opportunity in 2021 at James Madison, and why he hired him to run the Hoosier offense.
“Mike has done a great job and grown as a coordinator,” Cignetti says. “He gets better every year.”
Shanahan has worked for Cignetti since entering the profession as a receivers coach at Indiana University Pennsylvania in 2016.
“I’ve learned a lot from him and continue to learn,” Shanahan says. “I feel like I get pushed every day to be the best I can be.
“(Cignetti) does a good job of making sure every person in the building is someone who has high character and is fun to be around. It makes coming to work every day more enjoyable, whether it is coaches or players or anybody on his staff.”
Shanahan quickly accepted Cignetti’s offer to join him at Indiana.
“It was a no brainer for me. When he presented the opportunity, I jumped on it right away. I just feel like we mesh and see the game the same way. We have the same core principles and values. When it comes to scheme of fundamentals, we’re of the same mind.”
Shanahan’s score-early-and-often prospects this season are boosted by a strong offensive coaching staff that has Bob Bostad on the offensive line, John Miller at running backs, Grant Cain at tight ends, and Tino Sunseri at quarterbacks and co-offensive coordinator.
Shanahan and Sunseri have known each other for years, starting with their playing days at the University of Pittsburgh from 2008-12 with Shanahan as a receiver and Sunseri as a quarterback.
In three years working together at James Madison, they helped produce a versatile, dominating offense that featured all-conference quarterback play every season. The goal is to do the same with IU quarterbacks Kurtis Rourke, Tayven Jackson, Tyler Cherry, and Albert Mendoza.
“(Sunseri was) with the quarterbacks every minute of the day in camp,” Shanahan says. “In the season, he’s getting those guys ready. I rely on him a lot. We have a great personal and working relationship. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Shanahan’s relationship with Sunseri was a key factor when Cignetti considered elevating Shanahan to James Madison offensive coordinator in 2021 after he’d spent two seasons as the Dukes’ recruiting coordinator and receivers coach. Shanahan had previously coached receivers at Indiana University Pennsylvania and Elon under Cignetti.
Sunseri, meanwhile, was coming off a season as an offensive graduate assistant at Alabama that followed quality control assistant roles at Florida State and Tennessee.
At Alabama, Sunseri worked under Steve Sarkisian, then the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator and now the head coach at Texas. Sarkisian, who previously was the head coach at Washington and USC, is considered one of the nation’s top offensive minds.
“(Shanahan) had been with me a long time,” Cignetti says. “He was a receiver guy. I made a change at offensive coordinator, and was looking for a quarterback guy/coordinator. Being able to hire Tino made it possible for me to make Mike the coordinator.
“Mike and Tino were great friends. They played together. They go way back. Tino had the Alabama stuff with Sarkisian that I was interested in.”
For this season, Rourke, a former Mid-American Conference player of the year at Ohio, has emerged as IU’s quarterback frontrunner.
“He is pretty much the guy we've seen on tape,” Shanahan says, “and is doing his best to continue to grow and improve. Coach Sunseri has done a great job with him; teaching him the nuances of the offense, not only the scheme on the surface level, but the true nuances within each play. I think you’ll see him continue to get better and better. He has worked on his body this offseason and I think he made another step in that direction over the summer, as well.”
As a productive receiver at Pitt (159 catches for 2,279 yards, second-team All-Big East in 2012 after catching 62 passes for 983 yards and six touchdowns), Shanahan learned the nuances of the position, knowledge he’s put to good use as receivers coach.
As far as the transfer receivers, Shanahan says they are all “high-character guys and positive influences.”
“They always come ready to work. They’ve done a good job of getting to know the guys in our room who were already here, and everybody else on the team.
“They are all guys who have been very productive, caught a lot of passes, scored touchdowns, and played in big games. They’ve done it two, three and four years in college. Coach Cignetti says it’s production over potential. Combined with their character, it’s been a good thing for our receiver room and team.”
Elijah Sarratt might be best positioned for success given last season’s achievements at James Madison. He began fall camp at third string after transferring from Saint Francis of Pennsylvania and quickly became a major force with 82 catches for 1,191 yards and eight touchdowns.
“To say we expected what he did, that’s not the best way to put it,” Shanahan says. “I saw his football IQ. He picked up the playbook. He loves football. He’s a competitor. He stuck with it. When his moments came, in practice or in games, he took advantage of them.
“He was very consistent. You knew what you’d get out of him. He rose to the occasion.
“This season he has taken another step. His body has changed in the last year. He’s bought into the nutrition part and the recovery. He needs to continue to do that to give him the best chance to have success against the higher competition in the Big Ten.”
IU figures to rotate running backs with Justice Ellison, Kaelon Black and Ty Son Lawton leading the way.
“We’ve learned at James Madison that you have to have a lot of running backs ready to go with all the collisions they take, the hits that start adding up on them throughout the season,” Shanahan says.
“They’re are all similar. They do a good job of running the ball, a good job at pass pro. They can catch out of backfield. Week to week, it’s who is practicing the best. The competition won’t end until the end of the season.”
Cignetti has never had a losing record in 13 previous seasons as a head coach. His secret, Shanahan says, starts with “keeping the main thing the main thing.”
“He’s all about winning and doing the things that will help you have success on the field. Whether it’s handling adversity or success, creating that mindset we need to have going into a game and giving yourself a chance to win. We preach that to the kids and get them to buy in, and they have.”