Colorado’s Pat Shurmur moving to co-offensive coordinator role alongside Sean Lewis

Colorado is shuffling its coaching staff.

Analyst Pat Shurmur will be moving to co-offensive coordinator alongside Sean Lewis and assisting with the offensive line, a Colorado spokesman confirmed Friday.

Shurmur, 58, came to Colorado this offseason after a year out of football and previously was head coach for the New York Giants (2018-19) and the Cleveland Browns (2011-12). He was the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos in 2020-21. Shurmur last worked on a college staff in 1998, when he coached Stanford’s offensive line.

Lewis left his post as Kent State’s head coach after the 2022 season to be Colorado’s offensive coordinator under coach Deion Sanders. Offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle also came to Colorado with Lewis. After a 3-0 start, Colorado has lost four of its last five games to fall to 4-4.

Lewis will still be involved in play calling, a source briefed on the discussions said. Colorado declined to confirm which of the Buffaloes 10 on-field coaches will move to make room for Shurmur’s promotion.

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Colorado has allowed 42 sacks this season, more than all but one FBS team (Old Dominion). It also ranks last nationally in yards per carry, at 2.51.

“It’s a struggle to run the ball,” Sanders said after last weekend’s 28-16 loss to UCLA. “And we’ve got to figure that out because now you’re one dimensional and it’s easy to stop a team when they’re one dimensional and that’s who we are at this point of time.”

Sanders was critical of the Buffaloes offensive line’s play after the loss, too.

“The big picture, you go get new linemen,” he said. “That’s the picture, and I’m gonna paint it perfectly.”

Colorado has given up 24 more tackles for loss in the run game this season, including sacks, and has run the ball just 251 times this year — which ranks 114th nationally.

“When we’re getting negative yards on first down, that’s a tremendous loss because now you know you want to throw the ball on second down and they’re calling their defenses pertaining to that loss,” Sanders said this week.

Colorado hosts Oregon State at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday.

(Photo: Al Pereira / Getty Images)