Drastic Colorado coaching switch landed like ‘wounded duck at 7-yard line’

Promoting Pat Shurmur to lead Colorado football play-caller/co-offensive coordinator and demoting Sean Lewis to be his OC counterpart has landed like a “wounded duck from the 7-yard line” according to The Denver Post’s Sean Keeler — who maintains that with all of the things going wrong in Boulder, Coach Prime is still the right hire.

“Coach Prime’s Buffs (4-6, 1-6 Pac-12) probably won’t win another tilt this season,” Keeler prefaced before saying, “The game management lacks. Handing your offensive play-calling to Pat Shurmur is the kind of Hail Mary that lands like a wounded duck at the 7-yard line. The defense is coming around, but not quickly enough to save what’s left of November. And yet …Deion Sanders was the right hire.

“Coach Prime might not salvage his first season with a bowl bid. But by gosh, he’s salvaged a brand, hasn’t he?”

Pat Shurmur’s Colorado football offense plays slower than Sean Lewis’s

As Coach Prime revealed after the November 11 loss to Arizona, Colorado’s offense was handed over to Shurumur because Lewis’ fast-paced attack wasn’t working; at least in the Buffs head coach’s eyes.

“Instead of going fast, I want them to get it right,” Sanders said after the 34-31 heartbreaker against Arizona.

Still, Coach Prime is not trying to let the narrative that Shurmur and Lewis are at odds, dispelling that notion during the post-game presser while promoting the idea that the two are actually working as a play-calling team.

“I think they called a phenomenal game because it’s a collaborative effort when you hear it on the (headset),” Deion Sanders said. “They’re really working together as one and they’re unified. We’re not at odds around here, I don’t play that.”

With two games left, and an offseason change coming after that, the juiciest narrative the national media can get from the 4-6 Buffs is drama in their coaching ranks.

Coach Prime isn’t allowing the talking heads to play that game on his watch.

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