'He let his strengths be his strengths and hid his weaknesses': Why Sean Lewis was one of the stars of Colorado win over TCU

Prior to finishing 15-0 and winning its second straight national championship, there was actually a Group of Five matchup for Georgia last September that didn’t quite go as smoothly as expected.

Despite entering as a 45-point underdog, Sean Lewis and Kent State trailed Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs by just six late in the first half and then by only 10 with fewer than six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The 22 points scored by Lewis and the Golden Flashes tied for the most that Georgia gave up in any regular season game last year.

For those that have been paying attention in recent years, it’s not like Lewis creating issues for opposing defenses should be any bit surprising. However, it will certainly be less surprising for people following Colorado’s 45-42 win over TCU on Saturday.

Nine months after Lewis left his head coaching position at Kent State to become Deion Sanders’ offensive coordinator at Colorado, he was one of the clear top stars of the Buffaloes’ upset of the defending national runner-ups.

“What was most impressive aside from Deion (with the TCU win) was Sean Lewis,” a Power Five assistant coach told On3.

For Lewis, the move to Colorado came after being in the mix for multiple head coaching opportunities in recent years, including Georgia Southern before the Eagles hired Clay Helton and as a top candidate at Cincinnati this past coaching cycle prior to the Bearcats hiring Scott Satterfield.

Shortly after Cincinnati hired Satterfield, Lewis made the decision to leave Kent for Colorado. He had been the Golden Flashes’ head coach since 2018, leading the way for the nation’s top-ranked scoring offense in 2020 and turning around a program that hadn’t won more than four games in any of the five years leading up to his hiring.

After a 2-10 first season in 2018, Lewis ended up posting a 22-21 overall record the last four years, including an 18-10 mark against MAC competition.

“It felt like he was just making the best of a tough situation there with the resources and everything,” a Power Five administrator familiar with Lewis told On3.

Ultimately, Lewis’ choice to join Sanders’ staff at Colorado is already paying dividends for the Buffaloes. Under Lewis, Colorado shredded TCU for 565 yards and six touchdowns despite the Horned Frogs’ defense featuring a first-round NFL draft prospect at cornerback and two other preseason All-Big 12 selections.

To put those numbers into perspective, Colorado ranked 127th out of 131 teams nationally last season with an average of 15.4 points per game and 128th with an average of 281 yards per game. Meanwhile, the 45 points were the most from the Buffaloes against a ranked team in 22 years.

While players like Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and Dylan Edwards deserve a lot of credit for the offensive success against TCU, opposing coaches were also blown away by the work of Lewis.

“It didn’t look like it was their first game all together,” a veteran personnel source told On3. “To me, it looked like a well-oiled machine. They were getting the calls in efficiently. They called it right. They mixed in a lot of different looks. I’m always kind of drawn to the offenses that are simple but look complex. So they may not have a ton of calls that they bring into the game but just just being able to do the same play call out of different personnel groupings. And a lot of the stuff they did I thought was really impressive.”

Behind Lewis, Colorado scored on four of its six full possessions during the second half. That included the Buffaloes answering TCU go-ahead scores with go-ahead touchdown drives of their own on each of their final three full possessions.

Each of those last three drives required Colorado to go at least 75 yards for the score, including a six-play, 82-yard drive in the final minutes of the fourth quarter that Colorado capped with what proved to be the game’s decisive touchdown.

Aided by Lewis, Shedeur Sanders threw for a school-record 510 yards and four touchdowns. In addition, the Buffaloes had four players with at least 115 receiving yards.

Before Saturday, just five Colorado players had eclipsed 100 receiving yards the previous two seasons combined.

“He knows their line isn’t that great. Yet, watching that game, you’d think Colorado had a pretty decent line, but it’s because he protected them,” a Power Five assistant coach said. “He protected them by getting the ball out of Shedeur’s hands, choice routes and allowing Shedeur the creativity to move. And then he protected them by keeping TCU so off-balance with the 50 something passes he throws that he could sprinkle in some runs. And the pass was so good, the runs didn’t need to be blocked. He let his strengths be his strengths and hid his weaknesses the whole game.”

His work certainly didn’t go unnoticed among coaches. And it could have him right back on the radar for some different head coach openings this coming coaching cycle, especially if Colorado continues to win and put up big numbers offensively.

For now though, Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes are benefitting from having him in Boulder.