A reporter asked San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan Thursday how important the 12th man would prove when his 49ers hosted the Detroit Lions for this weekend's NFC Championship. 

"We don't call them the 12th man here," Shanahan said.

Maybe he was quick to correct because San Francisco's division rival, the Seattle Seahawks, wave '12' flags denoting their vaunted fan base. Or maybe, just maybe, the Texas Longhorn reflexively shot down Texas A&M's fan base moniker, knowing he'll face an Aggie alum on the opposite sideline, Detroit head coach Dan Campbell.

That's right, college football fans, the first Texas/Texas A&M clash of 2024 is the NFC Championship Game, not on November 30 when the programs officially renew their long-halted rivalry.

Dan Campbell is the last Aggie standing after fellow alum Dennis Allen's New Orleans Saints missed the playoffs. Texas A&M is one of just three schools, along with William & Mary and Miami (OH), with multiple active alums serving as NFL head coaches. Meanwhile, Shanahan seeks to become just the second Texas alum to coach his team to a Super Bowl victory, joining the legendary Tom Landry.

The Undergrad Years

Kyle Shanahan played sparingly at wide receiver after transferring from Duke to Texas, catching 14 passes for 127 yards in the 2001 and 2002 seasons combined. But it wasn't for lack of trying.

In The Athletic's five-part podcast series, "The Playcallers," last summer, Shanahan recalled then-Texas head coach Mack Brown giving his players an excused absence for that day's bowl practice so they could take their final exam. Shanahan had that test. He decided to go to practice anyway, even though he was redshirting and couldn't play in the game.

Needless to say, he failed that class.

But playing at Texas kickstarted his coaching career. His father, Super Bowl-winning head coach Mike Shanahan, knew his son wanted to be a football coach, so he called Brown to ask him to bring on Kyle as a reserve wide receiver. Shanahan became a vital contributor to the Longhorns as they went 22–4 in two seasons.

Dan Campbell's college choice actually came down to Texas and Texas A&M, but according to a 2022 ESPN story by Eric Woodyard, the Texas recruiter made an unforgiveable mistake that turned Campbell to the Aggies.

The Texas recruiter visited Campbell's home, where his father raised cattle, and mentioned how he'd never seen so many black deer in his life. The problem was, they were Spanish goats. Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum didn't make the same mistake.

Campbell went on to play four seasons at tight end for the Aggies, catching 27 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns in his career, winning the Big 12 Championship his senior year.

The Coaching Careers

Kyle Shanahan was seemingly born to be a coach, with a front row seat watching his father lead the Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens and the former Washington Redskins over 20 years. 

Shanahan has worked his way through the NFL ranks since 2004 and made a name of his own as an offensive coordinator. He was the OC for a Washington team in 2013 loaded with coaching talent. Rams' head coach Sean McVay oversaw tight ends, Packers' head coach Matt LaFleur the QBs and Dolphins' head coach Mike McDaniel the wide receivers. He became a bona fide future-head coach himself with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015 and 2016, where he oversaw Matt Ryan's MVP season and built a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl (OK, that was mean). Shanahan was named San Francisco head coach prior to the 2017 season.

Dan Campbell, on the other hand, still looks like he can suit up for the Detroit Lions. He enjoyed a ten-year NFL career playing for New York Giants (1999-2002), Dallas Cowboys (2003-05) and Lions (2006-08) as an integral blocking tight end. Unlike Shanahan, he's never been a coordinator. He started his coaching career with the Miami Dolphins before serving as assitant head coach for the New Orleans Saints from 2016 to 2020. Maybe he didn't cut his teeth in the coordinating room, but he's proven to be a leader of men. The situation looked bleak for him after a 3–13–1 record his first year and a 1–6 start in year two, but the Lions battled to an improbable 9–8 record after the woeful start. In 2023, they've compiled the franchise's best season in over 30 years.  

What's at Stake

Kyle Shanahan's been in this position before.

He's led the San Francisco 49ers to four NFC Championships since 2019, but is 1–2 in that span. The win came in 2019 with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo at the helm before losing the Super Bowl 31-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs. Two years ago, they lost a 20-17 heartbreaker to the Los Angeles Rams. In 2023, starting quarterback Brock Purdy tore his right UCL, backup quarterback Josh Johnson suffered a concussion, and the 49ers were forced to play without a quarterback for a majority of the game. 

Dan Campbell hasn't been in this position before, and neither has his franchise. He's led the Detroit Lions to uncharted territory, their first NFC Championship Game since the 1991 season. A win on Sunday would mark the franchise's first conference championship and Super Bowl berth.