Buffs want to establish run game

Fast-paced offense still ground-oriented

Offensive coordinator Sean Lewis loves to play a fast-paced style of football.

That doesn’t mean he aims to have a pass-happy offense with the Colorado Buffaloes.

Lewis played at Wisconsin, which is known for its toughness and winning battles in the trenches, and that’s still ingrained in him.

On Sunday, new head coach Deion Sanders and the Buffs will begin spring practices and one of the main areas of emphasis will be to establish a strong run game.

“I mean, there’s some Badger blood in me from where I played,” said Lewis, who spent the previous five seasons as the head coach at Kent State. “And the years that we were at Kent State, in 2021, we were the No. 3 rushing team in the country, only behind two service academies. So we’re gonna run the football.”

Doing that made it important for Lewis to bring Bill O’boyle with him to Boulder. O’boyle was Lewis’ offensive line coach at Kent State and will be charged with getting the Buffs going in the trenches.

“It goes back to the offensive philosophy and controlling the line of scrimmage,” Lewis said of bringing O’boyle with him. “In terms of implementing what we’re going to do, to be able to have someone that already knows it from the front seven perspective (is important).”

CU has had one of the worst offenses in the country the past two seasons and is aiming to change that this year.

This spring is important for laying the foundation, not only up front, but for Lewis’ entire offense. Junior Shedeur Sanders — coach Sanders’ son — comes in with a lot of hype as the new starting quarterback and there are intriguing newcomers and returners all over the board.

It’s also a brand new coaching staff, and Lewis is confident it’s a group that can get the Buffs off to a good start offensively.

“We’re fortunate to have a great staff, to where you can empower your staff to know the concepts, to understand the details and the techniques so that it can be taught in a very clean and concise manner,” Lewis said, “so that the kids can learn it, so they can go apply and think fast, know fast,

do fast.”

Here’s a position-by-position look at the offense going into the spring: