The Four S's: Shanahan + Shanahan = Success & Super Bowls

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is 60 minutes away from carving a place for his family in NFL history.

If San Francisco beats the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Super Bowl LIV in Miami, Kyle and his dad Mike would become the first duo to win the game as a head coach.

The younger Shanahan's success was expected. It always has been. The son of Peggy and Mike, who won two Super Bowls as head coach of the Denver Broncos, was born this way.

Jimmy Garoppolo will be his quarterback. Jimmy G knows him well but there aren't many people that have a better feel for Kyle than Kirk Cousins.

Cousins, the Minnesota Vikings Pro Bowl quarterback, was drafted by Mike and Kyle Shanahan and the Redskins in 2012 – Mike was the head coach and Kyle was his offensive coordinator -- the same draft Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder couldn't resist a blockbuster trade and subsequent selection of Robert Griffin III with the No. 2 overall pick.

Cousins would last longer in Washington than the Shanahans but he would eventually be freed from the clamps of Bruce Allen in 2018 to sign a three-year $84 million fully guaranteed deal in Minnesota.

The Vikings and Cousins authored an upset in New Orleans to open the playoffs in January before losing to Shanahan and the No., 1 seed 49ers the next week in the divisional round

Cousins provided his perspective to SI.com on what makes the younger Shanahan tick just days after returning from his second Pro Bowl.

"His work ethic -- I mean people see the final product on Sundays and are impressed with it but they don’t see how much it matters to him to sit down on a Monday morning and start the next game plan," Cousins said by phone.

Cousins pointed out that Shanahan spends "the entire day Tuesday in his office watching tape, studying the rest of the league, finding good plays, inventing new plays. You know that’s when he is in his laboratory and Sunday is the final product."

"The process of the week is just as impressive if you can peek behind the curtain and watch him develop that game plan week in and week out and take pride in it. You know, he really feels like what he puts on tape on Sunday, is, he is putting his name on that and he is not going to just throw something out there," Cousins pointed out.

It's that infamous Shanahan work ethic that drives Kyle.

"The way he studies the draft, the way he studies free agency, the way he studies the league after each season. He’s ready for any new wrinkles he can bring for the following year, it’s just a never-ending process and he obviously gets that from Mike (Shanahan)," Cousins said.

Kyle's Dad still often wakes up in the 4 AM hour to work in his unofficial role as a 49ers advisor. I know this because he texted me at 4:30 AM CT on Tuesday, already at it.

"Mike is a grinder and watches through clips over and over again and it’s no accident the success he’s had over 40 years and why someday he’ll be a Hall-of-Famer. You know, Kyle is the same way, a worker," Cousins said.

Often at Redskins Park, I would run into Mike while leaving the building at around 10 or 10:30 at night. He would say 'what are you still doing here' and I would often remind him that I got in at about 10 a.m. and he had arrived at 5 a.m. He would chuckle, but it was true.

When Cousins was drafted by the Redskins in the fourth round on 2012, he was in an admitted tough and frustrating spot. Initially disappointed, it was someone who Cousins leans on who pointed out he was with great coaches.

"My Dad reminded me that, “Look you're going to Mike Shanahan and his son Kyle. They've worked with some incredible offenses, some incredible players and a great deal of success, I think you're going to a really good spot and a really good fit,” Cousins said.

With that advice in his mind, Cousins went to work on being the best he could be despite the circumstances. He learned. He absorbed.

"I think week one of 2012, my first regular season game. Just watching the way he (Kyle) called the game,” Cousins said. “Playing in the Superdome against the Saints, scoring a bunch of points with a lot of new players. A new quarterback, you had a new No. 1 receiver, really a No. 2 receiver was new as well, in Josh Morgan, a rookie running back with Alfred Morris, all these new names, new faces and young players and we still scored I believe in the 40's on the road in a tough environment, I knew this guy was very creative.”

The Saints were not a great defensive team but any team led by Sean Payton is going to be hard to figure out. "I had heard after the game that their defensive coaching staff told him - we were not sure what was coming next. You had us very confused and we couldn't get a beat on ya," Cousins remembered of the ensuing fallout.

"I knew at that point this guy was quite a play caller and a game plan designer."

Cousins soaked in the coaching points that both of the Shanahans imparted on him - tools he still carries to this day, allowing him to have success.

"Little simple coaching acumens like we would see I had never heard before until I started working with him and that’s something I’ve carried with me forever,” he said. “The play pass fundamentals they would use, they had an acronym they would use, they would call it the four S’s, show the ball, snap the ball back, shrink and then step up. And those four S’s are fundamentals I’ve carried with me the rest of my career and have used it every single time I am in the play action."

Another mechanical tool the Shanahans emphasized to Cousins? "Teaching to throw from a wide base,” Cousins said. “A wide base always enables you to always be ready to throw and they always coached how tough it is to throw from the NFL pocket, how quickly the pocket condenses and when you have a good base you can manage the pocket. I will carry that with me the rest of my career."

The younger Shanahan and his 49ers ambushed the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game with a 27-point first half and finished with 285 rushing yards, while Garoppolo threw just eight times.

This isn't a new thing. The younger Shanahan and his staff will use motion and eye-candy along with multiple personnel packages to dress it up and then tight end George Kittle and fullback Kyle Juszczyk get to work as blockers.

When Cousins and the Shanahan crew were together, they occasionally used reverse-action and liberally used the pistol formation which allowed a few unique looks. They didn't use the jet-sweep much but Shanahan has used it in heavier doses the last few years.

"I just think the consistency with which it was used this year is unique. I don’t think as a play call it's as much of a unique wrinkle as much as the zone read back in 2012,” Cousins said.

I asked Cousins how Kyle is able to marry old-school principles he learned from his Dad with new-age techniques, while keeping it fresh for players in their 20's.

"Kyle was more aware of pop culture references and different things among the locker room and could easily connect with the players on a more social level because he’s basically, essentially the same age as us," he recalled.

The genius of Kyle Shanahan isn't that he's created something new. It's how he adds wrinkles and elements to make old look fresh with a work ethic that rocks.

Bryan Manning contributed to this story & the transcription of quotes. Manning has covered the NFL, MLB, NBA, college football and college basketball for almost 10 years for various outlets such as Bleacher Report, SB Nation, FanSided, USA Today SMG, and others. Bryan has covered the Washington Redskins for different outlets and currently co-hosts a podcast on the Virginia Tech Hokies for SB Nation. For his day job, Bryan works in engineering for a major communications company.

Chris Russell is the Publisher of RedskinsReport.com & Sports Illustrated's Washington Redskins channel. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Redskins" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621.