HE HAS ARRIVED : Mike Shanahan Set His Own Course on Fast Track to Head Coaching Job

The issue is not that Mike Shanahan, 35, comes to the Raiders as the youngest head coach in the National Football League, by 5 1/2 years, nor that he has never been a head coach anywhere else.

There are younger has-beens doing beer commercials.

The only thing that matters is whether he can coach, and there is a long line of people in his abbreviated past who will issue ironclad, gold-leaf guarantees that he can.

But so much has been made of Shanahan’s youth that one expected him to arrive in Los Angeles with a note pinned to his coat and an apple in his pocket.

Can Shanahan really be his own man working for Al Davis? At 35, he is old enough to run for president, which might be a softer job.

But there’s something in the persona and the past that made Davis, in his long, agonizing search for a coach, keep coming back to Shanahan. In all his coaching jobs, although he was only an assistant, the programs were much better for his presence.

The question is, can Al Davis make room for another genius, if indeed Shanahan is one?

“As I went into his character, as I went into his background, as I searched him out through the players at Denver, the coaches at Denver and everywhere he had been, I found no flaws,” Davis said. “No flaws.”

His first coaching job was at Oklahoma in ’75.

Presto! A national championship.

Whom did Coach Joe Salem call to cure the offensive blahs first at Northern Arizona in ‘77, then two years later at Minnesota?

Michael Edward Shanahan.

Who happened to be around in ’78 when Eastern Illinois University ended two decades of futility and suddenly became a national small college power?

None other.

To whom did Charley Pell turn in 1980 after his first season at the University of Florida when the Gators weren’t worth skinning for a decent pair of cowboy boots?

Same guy.

And now, in his hour of need, Al Davis reaches out for football’s boy wonder to work another miracle.

The record says Shanahan first coached for Barry Switzer at Oklahoma in ‘75-76. Actually, it was three years before that when he was a junior reserve quarterback at Eastern Illinois in Charleston.

In August of that year, Shanahan was hit so hard that he had to have a kidney removed, effectively ending his playing days, which hadn’t been much to speak of, anyway. He had played some as a freshman but not at all as a sophomore.

But he seemed bright and eager, so Coach Jack Dean kept him around.

Young? He just turned 20. The whiz kid reputation was about to be born.

A year later, as a senior, he served as a student coach, and the next year as a graduate assistant, while earning a master’s degree in physical education.

Then Mike Mullally, then the Eastern Illinois athletic director, recommended him to Switzer.

“That was back when we could bring in any number of assistants,” Switzer said by phone from Norman, Okla. “Mike was a young, smart coach that came highly recommended. He did an outstanding job for us.

“He worked with the quarterbacks. We were very impressed. He was not only an outstanding coach, but showed he had a bright future.”

Shanahan’s youth didn’t bother Switzer, as he doesn’t think it should bother the Raiders.

“That has nothing to do with it,” Switzer said. “I got my first job at 35 (at Oklahoma) and won 38 in a row.”

The Sooners won the national title in ’75 and the Fiesta Bowl in ‘76, and Shanahan moved on to Northern Arizona at Flagstaff, where Salem appointed him offensive coordinator.

Running about twice as often as they passed, the Lumberjacks averaged a school-record 391.1 yards per game and upset defending National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I-AA champion Montana State, 28-21, on a halfback option pass.

From there, Shanahan returned to Eastern Illinois under then coach, Darrell Mudra--again, at the recommendation of Mullally.

The Panthers had had only one winning season in 18 years but, with Shanahan running the offense, set 25 school records, went 12-2 and won the Division I-AA championship.

Mudra preferred to work from the press box, so Shanahan spent a rare season on the sideline, calling the plays.

“Mudra let his assistants have a free hand,” said David Kidwell, the Eastern Illinois sports information director. “He deserves a lot of credit. After all, he was the head coach. But in the end, Mike’s input was tremendous. I don’t think he was even wired to (Mudra) by a headset.”

Later, when Mullally moved to Cal State Fullerton, he tried to hire Shanahan as head coach, but Shanahan had his course charted to higher ambitions.

Instead, he rejoined Salem at Minnesota in ’79. The Golden Gophers’ record didn’t improve--4-6-1 when Shanahan was there, 5-6 the years before and after--but they were a lot more fun to watch, averaging a school-record 373.5 yards per game.

They broke 40 school records and led the Big Ten with an average of 5.8 yards per play.

En route to Minnesota from Eastern Illinois, Shanahan detoured through Oregon to visit Coach Mouse Davis, the guru of the “run and shoot” offense, at Portland State.

The Gophers were to open the season against Ohio State, and Buckeye Coach Earle Bruce didn’t suspect a wide-open attack until somebody tipped him off a day or two before the game.

Even so, the Gophers ran up 500 yards and a 17-0 lead before losing, 21-17.

Pell lured Shanahan to Florida in ‘80, and the Gators went from 0-10-1 to 8-4, 7-5, 8-4 and 9-2-1--sixth-ranked nationally--and played in a bowl game every season.

“Everybody said he was too young,” Pell said by phone from Florida. “Told me I was crazy. He did move around, but every move he made was an advancement in responsibility and in level of competition.

“He turned down two head jobs when he was with us. Eastern Illinois wanted him very badly. Texas-El Paso offered him an unbelievable contract, but he had his sights set higher.

“He has something that takes him beyond his years. What is it? I wish I could say. But I saw it then, (Bronco Coach) Dan Reeves saw it, and it appears the people in L.A. have seen it, too.”

Shanahan departed Florida for Denver early in ’84. Later that year, the NCAA penalized the school for recruiting violations. Two assistant coaches were implicated, but not Shanahan.

Pell was fired after a win, loss and tie in the first three games.

But when Shanahan left, Pell predicted he would be an NFL head coach within five years--right on schedule.

By Shanahan’s last season at Florida in ‘83, Pell had made him assistant head coach. The Gators averaged 412.0 yards per game, set a school record of 4,540 yards total offense and an NCAA record of 68.8% pass completions, and quarterback Wayne Peace completed an NCAA record 70.73%.

Obviously, it made sense to turn the offense over to Shanahan.

“That’s not because he demanded it,” Pell said. “His work habits and his knowledge demand more responsibility, and any coach worth his salt will give a staff member as much authority as he can handle.

“I gave him total control of the offense. He called the plays and set the plan. Personnel was the only thing I was involved in, and those little decisions like fourth-and-one, whether to go for it.”

But Peace, on the phone from Lakeland, Fla., said Pell didn’t go far enough.

“We weren’t allowed to really take advantage of his genius,” Peace said. “Coach Pell and I are close friends, but I just feel like Mike Shanahan was hampered. We ran such a controlled offense that he was finally happy to get out of Florida.

” . . . It was strange because he wasn’t a whole lot older than me,” Peace said. “He’s a disciplinarian. He’ll let the players have their bounds, but he won’t let them take advantage of him.

“We always called him ‘the Little Dictator.’ He wasn’t a yeller and screamer, but he pushed me extremely hard. I had tough practices. He demands a lot. But if you give him the effort, he’s in your corner all the way. He’s a player’s coach. He cares.”

Peace was surrounded by considerable talent. The Gator running backs in ’83 were Neal Anderson, John L. Williams and Lorenzo Hampton, and there also was wide receiver Ricky Nattiel--all of whom became first-round draft choices of the Bears, Seahawks, Dolphins and Broncos, respectively.

“He recruited me into college,” Nattiel, one of Denver’s Three Amigos, said by phone from his home in Archer, Fla. “He was out recruiting a guy that was a year ahead of me, and that’s when he noticed me. I played quarterback in high school and that kind of messed me up. I knew I wasn’t gonna be a college quarterback, and he told me I could play wide receiver (at Florida).

“I’m pretty sure he had something to do with me being drafted by Denver, too. The only thing that bothers me is I got to Florida, he coached me one year and left. I got to Denver and he coached me one year, and he’s gone again. I think I scared him away.

“He’s young and he’s smart. He will push you, but he treats you like an individual first. He understands that you’re only human and you’re gonna make mistakes.

“Before the big games, he’d come up to me and say things like, ‘You’re gonna make something happen today.’ It wasn’t the way he said it, but the way he looked at me. He gave me that look that showed he believed in me and had confidence in me.

“When we played Cleveland in the playoffs, when Vance (Johnson) couldn’t play, he gave me that look again. It did something to me.”

The 38-33 AFC title win over the Browns was Nattiel’s first start. He caught 5 passes for 95 yards and a touchdown.

“I hate the fact that he’s gone,” Nattiel said. “It’s gonna be a big loss to us. The Raiders are getting a great coach.”

Pell: “He’s no miracle man, but he’s the type of football coach that will win. He’s destined.

“I think it will be a great combination with, you know, Coach (Al) Davis.”