Sean Lewis’ brief time in Boulder is officially over.
On Wednesday, the former Colorado offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach was introduced as the head coach at San Diego State. He replaces Brady Hoke, who retired at the end of the season.
Lewis, 37, left his job as head coach at Kent State last December to take the coordinator job at CU, joining head coach Deion Sanders in Boulder.
One of the two highest-paid assistants in CU history – along with current Buffs defensive coordinator Charles Kelly – Lewis had a three-year, $2.7 million contract with the Buffs. Because he is leaving for an NCAA head coaching position, Lewis will not owe liquidated damages to CU for terminating his contract early.
Lewis is the first assistant coach to leave his job at CU for a college head coaching position since Tom Cable went to Idaho following the 1999 season.
During his introductory press conference, Lewis was asked about what he took from his time at CU with Sanders. He praised Sanders for doing an “unbelievable job of telling the story” and giving “unfiltered access” to the program. He also said Sanders “does an unbelievable job of speaking belief into existence.”
“Those two lessons learned were invaluable from our time that we shared together and I’m thankful for the opportunities that I had with him,” Lewis said.
After Saturday’s 23-17 loss at Utah in the finale, which completed a 4-8 season (1-8 Pac-12) for the Buffs, Sanders said there would be a “a few” changes to the staff. So far, two coaches have left the program.
Tight ends coach Tim Brewster announced his resignation on Sunday. Although it hasn’t officially been announced, Brewster posted on social media on Tuesday that he is joining the coaching staff at Charlotte.
The departures of Brewster and Lewis are not surprising since both had their roles changed by Sanders this season.
Following a 28-16 loss at UCLA on Oct. 28, which dropped CU to 4-4, Sanders made the decision to promote analyst Pat Shurmur to a co-coordinator role, taking the play-calling duties from Lewis and giving them to Shurmur.
In order to promote Shurmur to one of the 10 full-time assistant positions, someone had to be demoted and Brewster was the odd man out. Brewster technically finished his final month at CU as an analyst.
This season, with Lewis as coordinator, CU averaged 28.0 points (61st nationally) and 363.6 yards (82nd) per game. It was the program’s best scoring average for a full season (not counting the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign) since 2016.
With Lewis calling plays the first eight games, the Buffs averaged 32.1 points and 408.6 yards. The last six quarters were rough, however, prompting Sanders to make a change.
The Buffs had a 29-0 lead with 324 yards of offense at halftime against Stanford on Oct. 13. Then came a sudden drop. The Buffs scored 14 points and had 208 yards in the second half and two overtime periods, losing 46-43.
The next week at UCLA, the Buffs posted just 242 yards in the 28-16 loss, while quarterback Shedeur Sanders was sacked seven times. Sanders handed play-calling duties to Shurmur after that, with CU averaging 20.3 points and 273.5 yards in the last four games.