How Mike Shanahan's Pittsburgh roots led him to Indiana as an offensive coordinator

The man who drew up the game-winning play in the College Football Playoff National Championship game for Indiana almost never went into football at all. Norwin's Mike Shanahan grew up in a huge family where basketball was king.

"It was my first love growing up," Shanahan said. "My dad, my uncles Brian, Robert and Jerry all played college basketball. It was definitely a basketball family. I was one of the only ones to play football even in high school, so I kind of blazed my own path that way."

That path he blazed led him to a successful college career as a wide receiver at the University of Pittsburgh. After a few NFL tryouts didn't pan out, he needed to figure out his life's plan.

"At that point, I was leaning a little bit more towards teaching high school, coaching football and basketball," Shanahan said. "I wanted to be around the game. I just loved the camaraderie of it, the competitiveness of it."

He decided to give college coaching a try. His first official job came at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where then-unheralded head coach Curt Cignetti was building an empire.

"I'd be lying to you if I said I thought he would ever leave IUP," Shanahan said. "I did not go into that job expecting him to move. But regardless, I knew it was a great opportunity to go in there and have my own position room, learn from him as a great head coach and learn from a lot of other coaches there as well who have gone off to be very successful."

After stints at Elon University and James Madison University, Shanahan is entering his third year in Bloomington as Indiana's offensive coordinator, which has him in a position to possibly take the next step into a head coaching role.

"It is in the back of my mind, but I will say number one, I'm focused on what my job here is now. And I really enjoy working with coach Cignetti," Shanahan said. "I enjoy the leadership part of it and the role that I'm in now, and I could see myself someday potentially being a head coach. But I'm just taking it day by day and enjoying being where my feet are."

While Shanahan is on track to possibly become a head coach in the future, he's not doing too poorly at the moment. Just before Indiana's championship run, the school signed him to a three-year extension in hopes of keeping him in Bloomington for as long as possible.