Colorado assistant Sean Lewis is a name to watch in the Syracuse head coaching search.

The Orange fired head coach Dino Babers after eight seasons on Sunday, a day after Syracuse lost 31-22 to Georgia Tech on the road to fall to 5-6 overall this season and 1-6 in ACC play. Shortly after, ESPN’s Pete Thamel named Lewis as an early potential candidate for the job.

Other possible candidates for the position, according to Thamel, include Jason Candle, Bronco Mendenhall, Doug Marrone, Tony White, Al Golden, Curt Cignetti, Jim Knowles, Bob Chesney, Liam Coen, and Teryl Austin.

Lewis is in his first season at Colorado as the program’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. But the decision from Deion Sanders two weeks ago to strip Lewis of play-calling duties and elevate Pat Shurmur from his prior role as an analyst cast doubt on Lewis’ future with the program.

Colorado’s offense averaged 32 points a game before the switch from Lewis to Shurmur. The Buffs have averaged 21.3 points a game in the three games since.

Lewis was previously the head coach at Kent State, where he went 24-31 in five seasons at the helm.

After a 2-10 year in his first season, Lewis led Kent State to seven wins and a bowl victory in Year 2. It marked the program’s first winning season since 2012 and its first bowl victory in program history. Before getting the Kent State job, Lewis was the offensive coordinator for Babers at Syracuse in 2016 and 2017.

In 2016, Lewis engineered an offense that set or tied 40 school records.