This offseason, Colorado brought in 51 scholarship transfers looking for a fresh start in Boulder, but one of Deion Sanders’ biggest pickups was a 37-year-old former three-star quarterback recruit who played in the Big Ten and didn’t arrive through the portal.
Offensive coordinator Sean Lewis has worked wonders with what had been one of the worst units in college football. Through two weeks, the Buffaloes are averaging 40.5 points per game, up from 15.4 in 2022, a mark that ranked 127th out of 131 FBS teams. Under Lewis’ direction, Colorado’s 453 passing yards per game ranks second in the country, and the offense is averaging 10 yards per attempt (16th in the FBS). The Buffs sit No. 3 in the country in plays of 30 yards or more with 10; they only had 16 such plays in all of last season.
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“I think Sean Lewis is a great offensive coordinator,” said Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule after Colorado beat the Huskers 36-14.
It’s still early, but at this point it’s no stretch to say Lewis has made as big of an impact as any new assistant this season.
For most of Colorado’s newcomers, going to work with Coach Prime seemed like a no-brainer, but for Lewis, it was a lot more complicated than that.
Lewis was 31 when he was hired at Kent State in 2017, taking over a program that had won a total of 10 games over its previous four seasons. He was the youngest head coach in the FBS by three years. After a 2-10 debut, Lewis led the Golden Flashes to their first bowl win in school history. He quickly became a hot name inside the coaching world as his program took on an avalanche of heavyweight opponents in its nonconference schedule, from Georgia to Oklahoma to every Big Ten bully. Lewis was in the mix for several bigger coaching jobs, but he remained at Kent State for five seasons, posting an 18-10 record in MAC play in his final four years.
When the Cincinnati job came open last winter, Lewis emerged as a top candidate. He was one of two finalists along with Buffalo’s Mo Linguist, and Lewis’ offensive background may have given him an edge. But Louisville’s Scott Satterfield, with his four years of Power 5 head coaching experience, entered the picture at the last second and got the job.
Lewis took that as a sign that it was time to get out of Kent.
“When the Cincinnati stuff fell through, I thought, All right, if they don’t recognize in-state what we had done and how things could be, well then, it’s probably time for a pivot,” he told The Athletic last week.
Lewis concedes that he “was naïve” when Kent State made history with its bowl victory in 2019. His agents tried to tell him to be prepared to field interest, but he believes he didn’t take enough time to step back from his week-to-week focus and think about what would be best for his family and his career.
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“So when all that happened, my wife and I sat down after that whirlwind died down — all right, we’re in a good spot,” Lewis said. “We’re in a really good spot. If we are going to move and pivot, what would that be for and why would that be the case? We made up a personal list that we kept private about where we would go and for what reasons, so when this opportunity came available, we cross-referenced that list. We knew what it was and we talked it through. If we’re gonna be on this crazy adventure, let’s go. Let’s jump.”
Lewis’ reputation as a brilliant offensive mind dates back to his days as the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator at Bowling Green, when he helped lead one of the nation’s top five offenses in 2015 and produced the MAC Offensive Player of the Year in quarterback Matt Johnson. The next season, Lewis followed Dino Babers to Syracuse as offensive coordinator, and in their first season the Orange set or broke 40 school records. In Year 2, they led the nation in snaps per game (88), keeping defenses off-balance with their pace and knocking off defending national champion Clemson. At Kent State, Lewis’ “Flash Fast” attack led the nation in yards per game (606.5) and points per game (49.8) in 2020.
Even as he was pursuing the Cincinnati job, Lewis drew interest for some other opportunities last winter. Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Jay Valai, a Texas native and one of Lewis’ teammates at Wisconsin, knew Sanders’ chief of staff Ray Forsett and corners coach Kevin Mathis well and helped make the connection to Colorado. “Jay probably indirectly or directly had some say in all this,” Lewis said.
“Sean’s always been that guy,” Valai said. “He creates a lot of consternation for you as a defense. He breaks all your rules and stretches you out horizontally and vertically. He’s gonna check your oil with everything he does and the guy is a fantastic play caller. I knew Prime’s looking, and they did the rest from there.”
Colorado would need to pay the $750,000 buyout to Kent State in order to hire him, but before Lewis decided to make the jump to Boulder, he had to consider that becoming an assistant again meant giving up perks that come with being the head coach. The potential changes to his schedule were a critical factor for a coach with a 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.
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“Coach (Sanders) and I had talked a lot about family and how important family is to him,” Lewis said. “There were things that I could do as a head coach with my young family that he assured me that I’d be able to continue to do, and not a whole lot of head coaches are open to that.”
That’s why it meant so much to Lewis that the day after Colorado beat Nebraska, he was present at his son’s first flag football practice to support him.
Lewis called breaking the news to his players at Kent State “one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do.”
“I think I lasted about 10 seconds before I was bawling,” Lewis said. “Since 2019, it was every offseason, those kids saw the rumors. They saw what was going on. We’d call impromptu team meetings. The rumors were swirling, and I’d address any questions that they had because I always wanted them to be transparent with me and I was the same way with them. I thought that was a two-way street. When this came down, they knew what was going on with Cincy. I think they knew what was happening.”
There was one other key piece that had to be in place for Lewis to make the move. If he was going to go to Boulder, he had to be able to bring his offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle with him from Kent State.
“Coach OB does a such great job,” Lewis said. “When all these conversations started, it was never gonna be an option unless he was coming with me. Coach recognized that and how strongly I felt about that.”
Credit O’Boyle for perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Colorado’s offensive explosion: the performance of an overhauled O-line that came together after spring football and has had little time to jell. O’Boyle, a former head coach at Division II Chadron State in Nebraska, knows all about doing more with less. In his first spring practice at Kent State, his group only had three O-linemen suited up. The coach, in his mid-50s at the time, jumped in at tackle on several drills.
“I can’t say enough about the job that he’s done, keeping those guys together and getting the best five out there that play the best together, unified and seeing it through the same set of eyes,” Lewis said.
The Buffs offense is an interesting blend of schools of thought from around the football galaxy. Lewis leans heavily on the run-pass option game and concepts from the old Baylor system from which Babers came.
“(The Baylor influence is) there obviously in how we play fast and the tempo of it, and some of the vertical curl passing game and the deep choice concepts,” Lewis said. “But there’s also elements of the Badger run game that I’ve taken from (former Wisconsin coach Paul) Chryst with the gap stuff and some of the plays that Coach OB had success with at his previous stops. There’s also a pro element that (Colorado analyst and former NFL coach Pat) Shurmur brings. What we want to be able to do is blend and mix something. And for our kids, when the NFL scouts come in, they’ll have an understanding of defensive identification, coverage recognition and all the things that they need to be equipped to try and to do, and we take pride in giving them that.”
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Sanders used to call offensive plays himself and has seen the game through the eyes of a defensive player — and he knows his son, starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, better than anyone — so the head coach offers input on the offense. Also on staff is Sanders’ former OC at Jackson State Brett Bartolone, a disciple of Mike Leach’s Air Raid who serves as the wide receivers coach.
“We have a really unique blend of ideas with Coach, with Brett and Coach Shurmur and what we’ve done and what do our kids do well,” Lewis said. “I think it’s been a neat thinktank of making it our own version here in Boulder.”
Shedeur Sanders has jumped in and been fantastic piloting the Colorado attack. He is completing 78 percent of his throws and has a six-to-zero touchdown-to-interception ratio. The 6-2, 215-pound junior has displayed uncanny poise and presence to go with pinpoint accuracy, and he has gotten sharper as the game goes on: His passer rating is an eye-popping 238.8 in the second half, up from 141.1 in the first half.
“His anticipation and his accuracy and his overall football understanding are really impressive,” Lewis said. “I think he’s got a great clue and a great understanding of contour clues with the way the shell is structured. ‘OK, if they’re presenting this to me pre-snap, there’s only so many things that they can get to post-snap,’ and that allows him to clear or cancel certain things in the progression really quick because he knows how the concept is gonna attack the coverage and the picture that he’s seeing at a really high level.”
Lewis said the 21-year-old quarterback is diligent about his craft and open to learning.
“He’s mature beyond his years. I think I’m his third or fourth offensive coordinator, and he has that understanding about learning a new system and digesting and applying it. He sets the pace in the facility with watching film and studying as much as he does.”
Lewis’ constant message to his QB: Play each play for what it is. “It’s the old QB coach cliche that you can’t go broke taking a profit,” Lewis said. “If they’re gonna give you 5 yards, take it, and eventually if you keep doing that over and over and over again with the speed that we have and get them in space, good things are gonna happen.”
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The results have been easy to see.
“A few things really stand out to me about the job he’s done,” said Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt, a Colorado alum who has called the Buffs’ first two games. “First, they are incredibly organized, and I know that sounds weird, but to have this many new players and also so many new staff members, many who’d never worked together ,and to get them to play as efficiently as they have, is remarkable. He also does a great job with the gameplan of targeting athletes. He’s gonna get players their touches and really spreads the ball around. The other thing is, I think he’s done a great job of minimizing their weakness, which is their O-line. Granted, they gave up eight sacks (against Nebraska) but they still could’ve scored 40 points. They’re really getting the ball out so quickly.”
It’s been a surreal rise. Lewis has gone from life in the MAC to the biggest story in sports right now, with sellout crowds, national TV audiences and celebs everywhere he looks around the facility. Two days before Colorado played Nebraska, Lewis was sitting down in the cafeteria eating lunch with Terrell Owens and Colorado legend Kordell Stewart. “Everywhere you look around, there’s someone with a gold (Pro Football Hall of Fame) jacket or done some amazing things,” he said. “It’s pretty cool just as a football fan.”
Working for a coach with an aura like no one else in football has been an eye-opener for Lewis. As folks both inside and outside the sport try and decipher exactly why Sanders has defied expectations at Colorado, Lewis sees one thing that stands out.
“I love how he is authentically himself,” he said. “When you’re 31 and you’re the youngest head coach in the country, you probably walk into some rooms and think, OK, I got to act a certain kind of way, but as I’ve learned and grew there, and it’s been reaffirmed here, that you’ve just got to be true to who you are as you make decisions. Coach takes complete ownership of everything that is going on, and he does it his way, unapologetically, which is awesome. The way he’s able to, in this day and age, put the kids in the best light and give them a stage and a platform to maximize all the things that they can do, I think that’s really empowering.
“This staff has done a tremendous job, and kudos to Coach for putting people in place and saying OK, do your thing. There’s certain things that he wants and that we’re gonna give him. There’s a lot of freedom, and he’s like, ‘Hey, I hired you for a reason. Go. Take ownership of it.’ It’s really cool, and it’s really empowering. I don’t want to let this guy down. I don’t want to let the kids down. I don’t want to let anyone on our staff down, so you pour into it and you go.”
(Photo courtesy of Colorado Athletics)
