South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Shula learned plenty of valuable coaching lessons from his dad, both growing up and while working on his staff.
Don won two Super Bowls during his 26-year run as head coach of the Miami Dolphins. The 1972 squad was the first and remains the only team in the NFL history to have a perfect season. Thirty years since his retirement, he’s still the all-time winningest coach in league history.
Mike worked for his dad on the defensive side of the ball during the 1991 and 92 seasons, between stops in Tampa Bay and Chicago.
“My dad was awesome for so many reasons, because he was my dad, for one. But he just had such great perspective and talked about always moving forward and learning from the past, you can’t change the past, be better because of the past,” Mike said on Thursday, before South Carolina’s season opener against Virginia Tech.
The younger Shula was asked to share what he remembers about his dad’s approach during this time of the year, in the final days leading up to a season opener.
“Surround yourself with good people and be confident in what you’re doing, because of the way you’ve prepared,” Mike said. “And just kind of keep believing in yourself and those guys around you. I think those are the things right off hand that have stuck with me through the years. I’ve heard it from other coaches, too. You’ve got to handle the ups and downs, handle the what ifs and kind of be the same guy every day.”
Mike entered the coaching business in 1988, initially as an offensive assistant for the Buccaneers, where he remained for three seasons. Ray Perkins, who also coached him at Alabama, was the head coach and offensive coordinator. Perkins, like so many of the coaches Mike went on to work for, helped influence parts of his offensive philosophy.
After working for his dad, Mike then spent three seasons in Chicago as tight ends coach, where he learned from offensive coordinator Ron Turner.
Mike returned to Miami in 2000, where he crossed paths with Chan Gailey, who worked as the Dolphins offensive coordinator through the 2001 season.
After four years as the head coach at Alabama, Mike landed in Jacksonville as the quarterbacks coach from 2007-10. Dirk Koetter was the offensive coordinator for all four seasons.
Pat Shurmur first hired Mike to work for the New York Giants. Mike coordinated the offense and coached quarterbacks in 2018 and 19 while Shurmur was head coach. They spent two more seasons together in Denver, where Shurmur coordinated the offense and Mike coached quarterbacks.
Now, Mike is getting ready for his second game as offensive coordinator at South Carolina. The season opener is set for 3 o’clock on Sunday against Virginia Tech in Atlanta.
Earlier this week, Shula was asked about how he scripts play calls for the start of a game.
“Done it a few different ways over the years. Learned from some really good play callers,” Mike said. “There are some guys I’ve been around that were hard on the first plays. There’s other that were (more) in general and some in between. … We look at it with a couple of things – these are the things we’d like to start the game with and then there are other calls. I’m not speaking for every coordinator, but we’ve got to get these plays called at some point.”
We’ll see how that unfolds at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“All of those guys had their own little way of getting to the same point, so hopefully I’ve learned from all those guys and can apply that,” Mike said.