Sean Lewis has 'no regrets' taking job on Deion Sanders' Colorado coaching staff

Sean Lewis has moved on from Colorado rather swiftly, taking over the head coaching duties at San Diego State.

While Lewis was let go by the program before the regular season was finished — the former Colorado offensive coordinator has no bad blood with the Buffs, or his former boss Deion Sanders as he begins a new chapter in his coaching career.

“No, not at all,” Lewis told Jim Rome when asked if he regretted the decision to coach at Colorado. “If I did not make that leap of faith and make that move, we wouldn’t be talking today. I have been a Midwest guy primarily for the majority of my career a little bit of time off in the northeast, but Coach [Prime] gave me a tremendous opportunity and I’m grateful for it to come west and to establish some ties out this way.

“Because of the great work that we were able to do and open this door and this opportunity, so no regrets. I’m grateful and thankful for the experiences shared and the lessons learned and and easy to apply them and to build something special here.”

Lewis served as the head coach at Kent State from 2018-22 after working his way through the coaching ranks. He had a 24-31 overall record with the Golden Flashes and led the program to a MAC East title in 2021. However, he left after the 2022 season to become the offensive coordinator under Sanders as Coach Prime took over at Colorado.

Lewis served as the primary play-caller for the Buffs for most of the year, but after a myriad of offensive miscues and losses stacking up on each other, Sanders tabbed former NFL coach Pat Shurmur to take over those duties later in the year. Ultimately, Colorado finished with a 4-8 record after starting the season with a 4-2 mark.

Now, Lewis is off to San Diego State to replace Brady Hoke, who retired after four years with the Aztecs.

That didn’t seem like it would be the case, however, as Colorado started out the year with one of the highest-powered offenses in the Pac-12, but ended up finishing No. 9 in the conference with 363.6 total yards per game. Sanders made the decision to take play-calling duties away from Lewis midway through the year and elevate Shurmur from an analyst role. Coach Prime pointed toward his offense’s execution as a main reason for the change.

Sanders also made it clear that he wanted to make a change after the Buffaloes scored just 19 points against Oregon State. While he let it be known that it didn’t have anything to do with Lewis’ abilities as a coach — Sanders saw it as an opportunity for a shakeup.

Nothing ultimately came of it, however, and Lewis is tasked with turning around an Aztec team coming off a 4-8 season in 2023.