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Thamel: San Diego State to hire Lewis

Buffnik said:
Here's what I think happened:

1. Lewis came in from outside Coach Prime's immediate network, but the stars aligned for a year. Lew was looking to get out of a dead end situation at Kent State and needed a path to a job where resources matched up with high expectations. Prime knew he'd have to build from the outside in year one and was looking for an offense that could overcome being the less physical team & score a lot of points. It was a good fit on paper.

2. Coach Lew lost autonomy when Shurmur was brought in as an offensive analyst who had Coach Prime's ear. Almost a consigliere situation. Shedeur wasn't comfortable with all the zone read and rpo that form the base of the offense. He also didn't like playing at a frenetic pace instead of taking time to survey things presnap & it wasn't how he'd be used in the NFL. It was like having Tom Brady as your QB but an offensive system designed for Tua. Shurmur backed up Shedeur's frustrations. Likely, Kennedy was also frustrated because the Lewis offense makes his job harder and isn't a style that has ever been able to win championships at the highest levels.

3. So every week, even when things were going well early in the season, the offense got farther from what Coach Lew does and it resulted in the weaknesses being exposed without the advantages being realized. Made worse since Travis wasn't available for a few weeks and then wasn't himself, which removed the "when all else fails, just throw it up to Travis and it will work out" option which covers a ton of flaws.

4. Meanwhile, the OL was not performing. And it couldn't be blamed just on personnel or scheme because there were a ton of missed assignments. They tried different rotations. They tried slowing down to let them get on the same page presnap. Nothing worked to improve it. Shedeur was getting killed like no QB in the nation and the running game had been schematically limited without zone reads & rpo to only the short yardage packages (which did perform all year when you look at red zone & short yardage run success stats). Since BOB was Coach Lew's guy, this ultimately fell on him.

5. Coach Prime knew at least by mid season that this was not going to be his offense next year and Coach Lew knew by at least the same time that CU was not a situation that suited him & he needed to find his next opportunity. It was a bad fit, it was broken, everyone in the building knew it, and they did their best to get through it while all parties had one eye toward 2024.

Anyway, I don't blame anyone or have any negative feelings toward how anyone handled things. I think it was simply a matter of how sometimes things can look great on paper, the people all involved can be damn good at what they do, but the pieces don't fit together when you combine it all. The whole ended up being much less than the sum of its parts when you consider how accomplished the coaches are as individuals and how great the talent was at QB and other offensive weapons.

I expect that Coach Prime has learned a ton about what he needs in an offense, will get what he envisions, and the offense will be great in 2024. I expect that Coach Lew will win at SDSU and have one of the highest powered offenses in CFB. It just didn't mesh.
Click to expand...
Who is Kennedy?
 
It’s crazy how many people think Sean Lewis should’ve just stayed at Kent State where after a 5-7 season, he would’ve retained all of his worthy talent and won 10 games this year, leading to a much better HC position than SDSU. Nevermind the fact that he made more money at CU and will probably make 4x as much money at SDSU than Kent State. The hate for Prime makes them ignore the reality of college football these days.
 
This will be good for Lewis. He would have been gone had the intensity from the TCU game carried over the whole season.

Kind of isolates BoB to be canned, if he isn’t brought out to Sandy Eggo.

Let the true hunt for an OC begin/resume…
 
nolabuff said:
It’s crazy how many people think Sean Lewis should’ve just stayed at Kent State where after a 5-7 season, he would’ve retained all of his worthy talent and won 10 games this year, leading to a much better HC position than SDSU. Nevermind the fact that he made more money at CU and will probably make 4x as much money at SDSU than Kent State. The hate for Prime makes them ignore the reality of college football these days.
Click to expand...
All his talent was leaving to get paid via the portal. He could not elevate from his peak at Kent State and was unlikely to reach it again.
 
Buffnik said:
Here's what I think happened:

1. Lewis came in from outside Coach Prime's immediate network, but the stars aligned for a year. Lew was looking to get out of a dead end situation at Kent State and needed a path to a job where resources matched up with high expectations. Prime knew he'd have to build from the outside in year one and was looking for an offense that could overcome being the less physical team & score a lot of points. It was a good fit on paper.

2. Coach Lew lost autonomy when Shurmur was brought in as an offensive analyst who had Coach Prime's ear. Almost a consigliere situation. Shedeur wasn't comfortable with all the zone read and rpo that form the base of the offense. He also didn't like playing at a frenetic pace instead of taking time to survey things presnap & it wasn't how he'd be used in the NFL. It was like having Tom Brady as your QB but an offensive system designed for Tua. Shurmur backed up Shedeur's frustrations. Likely, Kelly was also frustrated because the Lewis offense makes his job harder and isn't a style that has ever been able to win championships at the highest levels.

3. So every week, even when things were going well early in the season, the offense got farther from what Coach Lew does and it resulted in the weaknesses being exposed without the advantages being realized. Made worse since Travis wasn't available for a few weeks and then wasn't himself, which removed the "when all else fails, just throw it up to Travis and it will work out" option which covers a ton of flaws.

4. Meanwhile, the OL was not performing. And it couldn't be blamed just on personnel or scheme because there were a ton of missed assignments. They tried different rotations. They tried slowing down to let them get on the same page presnap. Nothing worked to improve it. Shedeur was getting killed like no QB in the nation and the running game had been schematically limited without zone reads & rpo to only the short yardage packages (which did perform all year when you look at red zone & short yardage run success stats). Since BOB was Coach Lew's guy, this ultimately fell on him.

5. Coach Prime knew at least by mid season that this was not going to be his offense next year and Coach Lew knew by at least the same time that CU was not a situation that suited him & he needed to find his next opportunity. It was a bad fit, it was broken, everyone in the building knew it, and they did their best to get through it while all parties had one eye toward 2024.

Anyway, I don't blame anyone or have any negative feelings toward how anyone handled things. I think it was simply a matter of how sometimes things can look great on paper, the people all involved can be damn good at what they do, but the pieces don't fit together when you combine it all. The whole ended up being much less than the sum of its parts when you consider how accomplished the coaches are as individuals and how great the talent was at QB and other offensive weapons.

I expect that Coach Prime has learned a ton about what he needs in an offense, will get what he envisions, and the offense will be great in 2024. I expect that Coach Lew will win at SDSU and have one of the highest powered offenses in CFB. It just didn't mesh.
Click to expand...

A agree with all your points and they make sense. I don't think BL lost autonomy initially with Shurmer coming in, but BL did not like it. Perhaps, he did not play well with others as the season went forward. It think it was shock after Stanford. Then @UCLA the D got four TO's and the O regressed, so Kelly was definitely po'd and sort of elevated him over SL (or Prime had more confidence in CK) in the locker-room. I'd say the D played improved (not necessarily stats, but they made more plays) since 1st half of the SC game. With the O, they were just not playing complementary football which you really need to win or control segments of some games.

FYI, despite the score, I don't think that you can blame the WSU blowout on the D: O gave up 2 TD's on fumbles, ST was bad early--short punt and KO Rt Td. That game was out of control from the start.

Totally agree that Prime learned throughout the season as well. Not sure how well SL will do at SDSU just because they are recruiting at a different level and he is from the Midwest. I do think that SDSU is in a good position to recruit within their conference, it will just be a bunch of relationship building or SL will have to fill his staff with some CA guys. I think BL's success will be whether he and his staff can recruit within the short-leash period that we are in.
 
Gary Indiana said:
I believe a couple of things, based only on speculation…

1. The offense we saw the first few weeks, which much more balanced and high octane, was Lewis’ offense. As the hype built around the team and individual players, stronger personalities outside of his control began to impact his game planning and play calling.

2. I don’t believe that Deion will be at CU in three years.

That’s the basis for my original comment.

IMO Lewis is a really good football mind that will have a bright future away from CU, while we may be left searching for another answer in short time.
Click to expand...

Agree with what you are saying and I do share those same concerns about Lewis not being around to take over once Coach Prime leaves.

Any OC with aspirations on becoming HC could find the CU job pretty attractive.
 
Buffnik said:
Here's what I think happened:

1. Lewis came in from outside Coach Prime's immediate network, but the stars aligned for a year. Lew was looking to get out of a dead end situation at Kent State and needed a path to a job where resources matched up with high expectations. Prime knew he'd have to build from the outside in year one and was looking for an offense that could overcome being the less physical team & score a lot of points. It was a good fit on paper.

2. Coach Lew lost autonomy when Shurmur was brought in as an offensive analyst who had Coach Prime's ear. Almost a consigliere situation. Shedeur wasn't comfortable with all the zone read and rpo that form the base of the offense. He also didn't like playing at a frenetic pace instead of taking time to survey things presnap & it wasn't how he'd be used in the NFL. It was like having Tom Brady as your QB but an offensive system designed for Tua. Shurmur backed up Shedeur's frustrations. Likely, Kelly was also frustrated because the Lewis offense makes his job harder and isn't a style that has ever been able to win championships at the highest levels.

3. So every week, even when things were going well early in the season, the offense got farther from what Coach Lew does and it resulted in the weaknesses being exposed without the advantages being realized. Made worse since Travis wasn't available for a few weeks and then wasn't himself, which removed the "when all else fails, just throw it up to Travis and it will work out" option which covers a ton of flaws.

4. Meanwhile, the OL was not performing. And it couldn't be blamed just on personnel or scheme because there were a ton of missed assignments. They tried different rotations. They tried slowing down to let them get on the same page presnap. Nothing worked to improve it. Shedeur was getting killed like no QB in the nation and the running game had been schematically limited without zone reads & rpo to only the short yardage packages (which did perform all year when you look at red zone & short yardage run success stats). Since BOB was Coach Lew's guy, this ultimately fell on him.

5. Coach Prime knew at least by mid season that this was not going to be his offense next year and Coach Lew knew by at least the same time that CU was not a situation that suited him & he needed to find his next opportunity. It was a bad fit, it was broken, everyone in the building knew it, and they did their best to get through it while all parties had one eye toward 2024.

Anyway, I don't blame anyone or have any negative feelings toward how anyone handled things. I think it was simply a matter of how sometimes things can look great on paper, the people all involved can be damn good at what they do, but the pieces don't fit together when you combine it all. The whole ended up being much less than the sum of its parts when you consider how accomplished the coaches are as individuals and how great the talent was at QB and other offensive weapons.

I expect that Coach Prime has learned a ton about what he needs in an offense, will get what he envisions, and the offense will be great in 2024. I expect that Coach Lew will win at SDSU and have one of the highest powered offenses in CFB. It just didn't mesh.
Click to expand...
Well said. Thanks for elevating the conversation. Its amazing what the portal and NIL are doing to college athletics
 
Buffnik said:
I thought this was a fine response. I don't think the relationship was great, but he gave a thoughtful answer to the question and kept it positive:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1729934312277983247
Click to expand...
hate jim GIF
 
Buffnik said:
Here's what I think happened:

1. Lewis came in from outside Coach Prime's immediate network, but the stars aligned for a year. Lew was looking to get out of a dead end situation at Kent State and needed a path to a job where resources matched up with high expectations. Prime knew he'd have to build from the outside in year one and was looking for an offense that could overcome being the less physical team & score a lot of points. It was a good fit on paper.

2. Coach Lew lost autonomy when Shurmur was brought in as an offensive analyst who had Coach Prime's ear. Almost a consigliere situation. Shedeur wasn't comfortable with all the zone read and rpo that form the base of the offense. He also didn't like playing at a frenetic pace instead of taking time to survey things presnap & it wasn't how he'd be used in the NFL. It was like having Tom Brady as your QB but an offensive system designed for Tua. Shurmur backed up Shedeur's frustrations. Likely, Kelly was also frustrated because the Lewis offense makes his job harder and isn't a style that has ever been able to win championships at the highest levels.

3. So every week, even when things were going well early in the season, the offense got farther from what Coach Lew does and it resulted in the weaknesses being exposed without the advantages being realized. Made worse since Travis wasn't available for a few weeks and then wasn't himself, which removed the "when all else fails, just throw it up to Travis and it will work out" option which covers a ton of flaws.

4. Meanwhile, the OL was not performing. And it couldn't be blamed just on personnel or scheme because there were a ton of missed assignments. They tried different rotations. They tried slowing down to let them get on the same page presnap. Nothing worked to improve it. Shedeur was getting killed like no QB in the nation and the running game had been schematically limited without zone reads & rpo to only the short yardage packages (which did perform all year when you look at red zone & short yardage run success stats). Since BOB was Coach Lew's guy, this ultimately fell on him.

5. Coach Prime knew at least by mid season that this was not going to be his offense next year and Coach Lew knew by at least the same time that CU was not a situation that suited him & he needed to find his next opportunity. It was a bad fit, it was broken, everyone in the building knew it, and they did their best to get through it while all parties had one eye toward 2024.

Anyway, I don't blame anyone or have any negative feelings toward how anyone handled things. I think it was simply a matter of how sometimes things can look great on paper, the people all involved can be damn good at what they do, but the pieces don't fit together when you combine it all. The whole ended up being much less than the sum of its parts when you consider how accomplished the coaches are as individuals and how great the talent was at QB and other offensive weapons.

I expect that Coach Prime has learned a ton about what he needs in an offense, will get what he envisions, and the offense will be great in 2024. I expect that Coach Lew will win at SDSU and have one of the highest powered offenses in CFB. It just didn't mesh.
Click to expand...
Spot on. I had questions day 1 about it. 2s style of play didn't really match this style. In fact, he improved athletically to do much better than I expected in it. But let's be clear, things really fell when Tank got exposed against Kamara and then Oregon. Tank was easily our best linemen and his fall from grace really ended us.
 
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