San Diego State hired Colorado co-offensive coordinator Sean Lewis to be its next head coach on Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know:
- Lewis joined Colorado coach Deion Sanders’ staff last offseason after departing from Kent State as head coach.
- The 37-year-old led the Golden Flashes from 2018 to 2022, posting a 24-31 record and winning the 2019 Frisco Bowl.
- Lewis was also in consideration for the Syracuse head-coaching job before Fran Brown emerged as the top candidate and was hired for the role.
- The Buffaloes finished 4-8 this season.
What Lewis brings to SDSU
Lewis left Kent State for the offensive coordinator job at Colorado in hopes it would be a faster ticket up the coaching ladder and that plan worked out after just one year, even in a year in which he was controversially demoted from play-caller at midseason.
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Multiple industry sources expressed consternation to The Athletic at coach Sanders’ move after the Buffaloes’ hot start offensively. Lewis is a well-respected offensive schemer and took Kent State to its first bowl win as a head coach. Now, he’s heading to a school with a brand new stadium that has won the Mountain West three times since 2012.
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Lewis also brought offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle with him to Colorado from Kent State. It wouldn’t be surprising if O’Boyle left Colorado to join Lewis again. Sanders expressed frustration multiple times with the performance of the Buffaloes’ patchwork offensive line this season and forecasted the program may replace many of them this offseason. — David Ubben, senior college football writer
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What kind of fit is Lewis?
Fixing the offense was always going to be the No. 1 priority for the next head coach. SDSU has been a winning program for more than a decade on the back of one of the best defenses in the country, but the offense had fallen off immensely without elite running backs. The Aztecs haven’t finished in the top 75 in scoring offense since 2017. This year’s team ranked 113th.
Lewis is a 180-degree shift. At Kent State, Lewis ran one of the fastest offenses in the country. The 2020 team scored 49.8 points per game in a shortened four-game season. The 2021 team finished second in the MAC in scoring. At Colorado, his offense had scored more than 30 points per game before his demotion.
Lewis had a pretty good run as Kent State’s head coach. While he was 24-31 overall, that included three or four Power 5 opponents in the nonconference schedule every year. He went 18-10 in MAC play over his last four years, won a division title and took Kent State to two bowls and three consecutive non-losing seasons for the first time since 1972-74.
Kent State was one of the least-resourced programs in FBS. San Diego State, meanwhile, just opened a new $310 million stadium in 2022. Now it needs an exciting offense to fill it up. — Chris Vannini, senior college football writer
What they’re saying
“He is a coach with immense talent and I’m looking forward to the excitement that his teams are going to generate at Snapdragon Stadium,” SDSU athletic director John David Wicker said in a statement. “His approach emphasizing academic and life skills opportunities are equally important and will complement the student-athlete experience.”
Required reading
(Photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
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