During an introductory press conference that was something between a motivational speech and a Sunday sermon, Deion Sanders, while laying out his vision for what he would do as the new head coach at Colorado, said he was “going to have one of the best coaching staffs assembled.”
With his first major hire on that staff, it looks like those words might be more than bluster. He may very well be right.
Fewer than 36 hours after Sanders was publicly unveiled as the Buffs’ new coach, it was reported that Kent State head coach Sean Lewis would be leaving his post to become the Buffs’ new offensive coordinator. Lewis himself confirmed the news on social media Wednesday morning.
Landing Lewis was a coup for Colorado. The 36 year old had seen his name floated around for bigger head-coaching jobs the past several years, most recently with Cincinnati. If you remember, I had him on my original coaching hot board for the Colorado job back in early November. There was a reason for that speculation. Lewis wasn’t a sitting head coach looking to beat the posse and get out of a job before he might be fired. His 19-24 record in five seasons at Kent State may not look particularly impressive at first glance, but he was occupying one of the most difficult jobs in the Mid-American Conference. In the four years before his arrival, the Golden Flashes went 10-37. If anything, Lewis was due for a bigger and better head-coaching position, which is what makes this move still so surprising.
With the hire now complete, Colorado fans, excited as they may be, are right to wonder what the Buffs’ offense might look like under Lewis’ watch.
Based on the information we have available, let’s take a look
What his offenses have done
We’ll get the obvious out of the way quickly – Lewis’ offenses score a lot of points and rack up a lot of yards. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.
During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, in which Kent State only played four games, it finished first among all Football Bowl Subdivision teams in both total offense (606.5 yards per game) and scoring offense (49.8 points per game). The following year, in 2021, the Golden Flashes were fifth nationally in yards per game, with 493.4.
To give a fuller picture, let’s take a year-by-year look at how Lewis’ offenses fared in the two major statistical categories.
2022: 417.9 yards per game, 28.6 points per game
2021: 493.4 ypg, 33 ppg
2020: 606.5 ypg, 49.8 ppg
2019: 405.6 ypg, 29.2 ppg
2018: 383.6 ypg, 23.9 ppg
For some added context, in the 2017 season, the season before Lewis took over as the youngest head coach in college football, Kent State averaged just 275.2 yards and 12.8 points per game, ranking them third-to-last and second-to-last, respectively, among FBS teams.
There was a modest drop-off this past season, but that can at least partially be attributed to the graduation of quarterback Dustin Crum, who threw for 7,012 yards, 52 touchdowns and 10 interceptions from 2019-21 while completing 67.4% of his passes and averaging 8.7 yards per attempt. Even without Crum, the Golden Flashes still performed fairly well. Their 22 points against reigning national champion and current College Football Playoff No. 1 seed Georgia, for example, were tied for the most the Bulldogs had given up during the regular season.
If the trajectory of Lewis’ offenses at Kent State is any indication, expect some rapid offensive improvement next season in Boulder.
How the offense works
Lewis aptly dubbed his scheme the “Flash Fast” offense, playing not only on Kent State’s nickname, but the fact that the offense operates at a pace that’s really, well, fast.
The Kent State offense was undeniably up-tempo, using quick snaps to waste little time between the end of one play and the start of another. It’s a derivation of the Baylor offense under Art Briles and it’s relatively similar to what Tennessee runs now under Josh Heupel, with receivers lining up at the far ends of the field to stretch out opposing defenses. Given Lewis’ career path, it makes sense, as he worked for five seasons – including the final three as offensive coordinator – under Dino Babers, a former Baylor assistant who’s now the head coach at Syracuse.
Flash Fast utilized a lot of run-pass options, giving the quarterback in the system a fair degree of autonomy for what direction a particular play might go. In addition to those RPO looks, the offense had some power-running wrinkles, making it more versatile than what you might envision a fast-paced, spread-out offense to be. Over the past three seasons, the Golden Flashes ran it more often than they passed, with passing plays accounting for 41% of total offensive plays in 2022, 38.5% in 2021 and 38.7% in 2020.
When Kent State did throw the ball, it turned to a vertical passing game. If teams would play two high safeties, it would open up shorter throws.
