Syracuse co-offensive coordinator Sean Lewis hired as Kent State head coach

Last week, we’d heard the surprising news that Syracuse Orange co-offensive coordinator/quarterback coach was a strong candidate for the open Kent State Golden Flashes head coaching job. Now we learn on Monday that he’s got the job, according to Football Scoop.

First off, congrats to Coach Lewis, who was a young and likeable coach during his short time at Syracuse. He was heavily involved in recruiting and obviously played a key role in the offensive turnaround still under way for the Orange.

Lewis has risen quickly through the coaching ranks since graduating Wisconsin in 2007. He coached high school ball from 2007-09, then Nebraska-Omaha in 2010. Lewis was a grad assistant at Akron in 2011 before heading to Eastern Illinois to serve on Dino Babers’s first Eastern Illinois staff. He’d been with Babers at three stops since 2012.

At Kent State, Lewis will have a significant rebuild on his hands, after the Golden Flashes bottomed out to 2-10 in 2017. He’s already starting to build out his staff however, including one familiar name -- former SU assistant Tom Kaufman, who left for Chattanooga last offseason.

While it’s great to see Lewis get an opportunity to take over his own program, it’s certainly disconcerting time for the Orange as well. With the early signing period on Wednesday, the departure could end up having an effect on current verbal commits (TBD). We’ll have to see what happens on that front...

Syracuse now has a coaching position available, and another one is set to open up in the New Year when staffs are allowed to grow to 10 coaches. You’d think co-offensive coordinator Mike Lynch simply steps up into the full OC role and then we hire an offensive line coach. But Babers has always been one to keep staffing moves pretty under wraps.

Good luck to Coach Lewis, and to the SU staff as they move past this slight setback toward what should be a successful early signing period.