San Diego State’s new football coach has a Twitter bio that reads, “Life is too short to huddle.”
His name is Sean Lewis, and unless you’re a diehard college football fan, or you followed the University of Colorado really closely this season, you’ve probably never heard of him.
The rule of being a Sports fan is having an immediate opinion and stubbornly not changing this opinion until others have forgotten your original opinion and you’re off the hook. We have an inherent bias toward name recognition and the initial streams of data we discover. This makes it easy to be disappointed in the hire.
Personally, I’m cautiously optimistic. I like most of what I’ve read and heard.
When I wrote two weeks ago about the Aztecs opening, my primary point was I don’t care if the new head coach uses SDSU as a stepping stone to another job. A quick departure would mean he was extremely successful. I’ll take that.
I also wanted an offensive-minded coach with a lot creative schemes. That’s definitely Lewis. His offense is called “FlashFAST” and that’s what you’d expect from someone whose Twitter bio says, “life is too short to huddle.” He’s set all kinds of records as the offensive coordinator at Syracuse and as head coach at Kent State.
His track record at both Kent State and Colorado, admittedly, are where things get murky.
Let’s start with Kent State. If you simply look at his 24-31 record in five years, you’re not impressed. Here’s some context: Kent State has played football for 62 years and only been to four bowl games. Lewis took them to half of them and won their only bowl game. The first year, Kent State went 2-10, then he went 22-21. But let’s dig even deeper. Who did they play in non-conference?
2022: at Washington, at Oklahoma, at Georgia.
2021: at Texas A&M, at Iowa, at Maryland.
2020: Covid year, it was only four Mid-American Conference games.
2019: at Arizona State, at Auburn, at Wisconsin.
2018: at Illinois, at Penn State, at Ole Miss.
That’s a hellacious non-conference scheduled filled with “buy” games that basically funded the athletic department. They made $5.2 million for taking their lumps in those three 2022 games.
Lewis was a top candidate to leave Kent State for the Cincinnati head opening last Winter. Ultimately, the Bearcats chose Louisville’s Scott Satterfield, probably because he had Power 5 coaching experience.
Just recently, this Indiana fan blog wrote he should be the top candidate for the current Hoosiers opening.
Lewis wasn’t fired at Kent State. He left on his own, to take a demotion in title, but a raise in salary, to become the offensive coordinator under Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders at Colorado.
The Buffalos were the talk of college football early in the season and Lewis’ story was detailed in this terrific profile.
If you enjoy watching videos of an offense with lots of pre-snap movements, multiple options for the quarterback, and offensive lineman in space blocking defensive backs, then you’ll enjoy this story with plays from Lewis’ offense at Kent State.
But this is where things get murky again.
Coach Prime took away the play-calling duties from Lewis as the team limped to the finish line. I remember watching the UCLA-Colorado game. Prime didn’t hide his displeasure on the sidelines or during a brief halftime interview.
Overall, Colorado’s offense this year was dynamic, and statistically better when Lewis called the plays. Prime’s son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, raved about him on some social media videos I watched. It’s absolutely the type of creativity that’s been lacking for the Aztecs the last decade and will hopefully energize an Aztecs fan base that has just tuned out football.
But will it?
He’s not a name. If the bullet points are “losing record at Kent State” and “stripped off play calling duties at Colorado” that isn’t going to motivate people to buy season tickets.
The Aztecs were never going to get a “big name.” It was delusional to dream it, yet still understandable. It’s San Diego. It’s not a normal college town. It’s America’s Finest City.
I’m curious to hear Lewis talk at his press conference this morning, his energy, and how he works a room. That rah-rah stuff is needed in college. You have to sell yourself to recruits, donors and alums.
This is the most important coaching hire that SDSU athletic director J.D. Wicker has ever made. It’s a pivotal time for the university, especially after building a new football stadium where attendance already plummeted in year two.
I told a few friends that I’m eager to hear what Coach Prime says about Lewis. A ringing endorsement from Coach Prime would go a long way to winning over Aztecs fans. And then I thought about the dichotomy of it all and the difference between Colorado and San Diego State.
They hired Coach Prime.
We hired Prime’s assistant (who many in Boulder thought would be the next head coach once Prime bolted) and I’m hoping Prime says nice things about him. What I’m really hoping is that Lewis learned a lot about NIL and the transfer portal from Prime and can immediately infuse new talent on the Aztecs.
On paper, Lewis is the type of coach I wanted, even if most of us had never heard of him 24 hours ago.