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Thamel: San Diego State to hire Lewis

So you don’t believe?
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.
 
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.
So is it your assertion that we will regret not retaining him as OC for three years so he could take over as HC?
 
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.
Should we have let Deion go to elevate Lewis? That would be the only way forward with Lewis.
 
So is it your assertion that we will regret not retaining him as OC for three years so he could take over as HC?
When you might be scrambling at any moment to rebuild a staff, I believe it’s a good idea to have as many valuable resources around you as possible to accomplish that. I believe Lewis exemplifies that idea more than any other member of our current assistant staff.
 
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.
What makes you think Prime is only going to be here till next year?

You think he will leave as 2 and 12 leaves?

I don't believe that to be the case.
 
Should we have let Deion go to elevate Lewis? That would be the only way forward with Lewis.
Definitely not. I recognize the two can no longer coexist. I’m just anticipating feeling some pangs in a few years when we’re doing a postmortem on the Prime at CU experiment.
 
What makes you think Prime is only going to be here till next year?

You think he will leave as 2 and 12 leaves?

I don't believe that to be the case.
I just don’t see a long term fit between Prime and CU. If he’s as successful as we all hope I can see him heading back to the southeast for a SEC job, and I wouldn’t blame him.
 
Right? They should have mentioned how much they don't care about CU football.
Oh touche. You got me.

Nodding Approve GIF by Ford
 
I just don’t see a long term fit between Prime and CU. If he’s as successful as we all hope I can see him heading back to the southeast for a SEC job, and I wouldn’t blame him.
Curious as to which SEC school you think would be a good fit for Prime. I honestly can’t think of one. Maaaaayyyybe Florida, and that’s a stretch.
 
Congratulations to Coach Lewis. It is a good job and he earned it. I hope for this continued success except if they ever play us.

Welcome to the bigs again— some of you weren’t around when we were good. Good programs lose good coaches.

The internal narrative around here is needlessly worried.
 
Congratulations to Coach Lewis. It is a good job and he earned it. I hope for this continued success except if they ever play us.

Welcome to the bigs again— some of you weren’t around when we were good. Good programs lose good coaches.

The internal narrative around here is needlessly worried.
I appreciate your black and gold goebbels / baghdad bob mashup.
 
Ignore the outside noise. Judge the staff by what coaches are now going to be added and what recruits are brought in.

And wish Coach Lewis the best. He earned a shot at a high g5 job and he got it. The rest of this is just the cumulative trauma of 20 years of suck.
 
I just don’t see a long term fit between Prime and CU. If he’s as successful as we all hope I can see him heading back to the southeast for a SEC job, and I wouldn’t blame him.
Let’s all face it, Prime came here because he loves Yellowstone and this was the closest equivalent that offered. Let’s all give thanks to Kevin Costner and leave it at that.
Paramount Network Cowboy GIF by Yellowstone
 
The only coaches going to the SEC are “chasing a bag”. Most get beat up and churned out unless they’re at Bama or Georgia or LSU.

CP is wealthy and can factor other things into his priority list … and an easier BIG 12 schedule is a big win. A great AD relationship is a great thing. Family (don’t you forget about Bossy now, or Bucky) is a great thing. Boulder is an incredible place. That’s a great thing.

I’ve never been to an SEC college town. Don’t really have any urge to visit either. Frankly, San Diego State sounds 1 million times better.
 
There were rumors that he had been inquiring about other HC jobs, namely MSU, early in the season and that potentially lost Primes trust
I think every assistant coaches inquire other HC jobs when they are available though. The fact that our offense digress so much in the middle season makes me feel it's more than just outgoing inquiries
 
You would think SL would have kept pressing for offensive stats to make his stock go up
 
I think every assistant coaches inquire other HC jobs when they are available though.
Agreed. You want guys that are hungry and ambitious coaching your team. Job seekers are probably most of those guys. Having a coaching tree where guys coordinate for you before heading off as a HC is good for attracting ’the next great coach’ to your staff. Which is good for Prime.

The fact that our offense digress so much in the middle season makes me feel it's more than just outgoing inquiries
Im thinking there is more to that story but we’ll never truly know. I suspect Prime hampered Lewis a little bit on behalf of SS. I suspect Lewis screwed up the play calling game management a little bit. And I think once other teams saw how bad the OL was and capitalized on that Lewis was forced to move away from what he wanted to do.
 
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.
 
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