Sean Lewis enters freshman year at San Diego State after growing through challenges under Deion Sanders at Colorado

LAS VEGAS — Sean Lewis entered Mountain West Media Days looking tanned and refreshed, a changed man after one of the most absurd 18 months of any college football coach.

After voluntarily leaving the team after successfully coaching Kent State, one of the toughest jobs in college football, everything went according to plan. He landed a job at one of the top Group of Five programs, one of the few with genuine aspirations of competing at the national level. Success at San Diego State means national attention and potentially even more opportunities in the expanded College Football Playoff era.

At San Diego State, Lewis can recruit one of the most talented areas in the country within driving distance and still be back to put his kids to bed. His favorite thing about living in San Diego is the quality Mexican food that he can eat all the time. Things will change, of course, when the games start, but life couldn’t be better.

“What’s not to love?” Lewis said. “The quality of life, the professional growth, the incredible opportunities, it was a no-brainer. Every time I talked with (SDSU athletic director John David Wicker) and we went through that process, I kept hoping that I would get a call back.”

Of course, there was that little detour in the middle where Lewis joined the wild ride as Deion Sanders’ offensive coordinator at Colorado. Three weeks into the 2023 season, he was the talk of the sport after miraculously transforming an island of misfit toys into one of the best offenses in college football. Colorado scored 40 points in five of its first seven games. Then Sanders abruptly terminated Lewis, a move that shocked the sports staff.

I asked Lewis what he learned most from his strange stint in Colorado during Coach Prime’s breakout first season at the helm. His answer? Perspective. To put it in polite Midwestern verbiage: It was brutal.

“Every opportunity I’ve had, every seat I’ve sat in, I’ve been able to learn and grow from it,” Lewis said. “It’s a very real value. Being in a position at CU last year, there’s the media attention, there’s the spotlight, there’s the NIL, there’s the reality TV show, there’s all of that. It challenges you to think about all the things that are important within the program that have helped me grow as a coach and as a person.”

Fortunately for Lewis, attention is a double-edged sword. What Colorado and Sanders saw as a public failure during a 4-8 season (and an offense that went from 32 to 20 points per game after Lewis), others saw as an underappreciated asset. But more than anything, the attention brought to Colorado’s program by Sanders’ polarizing presence simply made people saw Lewis. Coming from Kent State, where his success was constantly overlooked or taken for granted, that was all that mattered.

Ultimately, the attention paid to his doomed tenure at Colorado led to one of the most coveted Group of Five positions in the sport. That attention helped create the second-best transfer class and third-best high school recruiting class in the Mountain West. That attention helped drive season ticket sales and interest as San Diego State continues to position itself for the future of college football.

And here’s Lewis’s little secret: When you look at him, he’s a damn good football coach. From 2018-22, he led Kent State to one of its best winning streaks in program history. In 2021, the Golden Flashes reached the MAC title game for just the second time. He led Kent State to its first bowl victory. Lewis has recorded more seven-win seasons than the program’s previous 30 years combined. At San Diego State, Lewis won’t have to do more with less; in the long run, he can do more with more.

Lewis’ first year will test his resourcefulness. The Aztecs rank 108th nationally in return production in Lewis’ first season. SDSU doesn’t have a single preseason All-Mountain West selection, though transfers from Florida State, Utah and USC will quickly try to fill the holes. San Diego State was selected eighth in the preseason poll, but behind Boise State, the league is wide open. Incidentally, at least one Buff believed in Lewis: Tight end Michael Harrison, CU’s second-leading receiving touchdown, followed Lewis to San Diego.

Needless to say, getting demoted and publicly embarrassed was never Lewis’ primary goal when he left Kent State. But he eventually accepted it and ended up exactly where he needed to be.

“I left Kent State to be in a better place,” Lewis said. “You make a move professionally and personally to be in a better position than where you were. Sitting here today, we accomplished that goal. It was a crazy journey to get here, but we did what we set out to do.”