Deion Sanders is getting desperate to salvage Colorado's slim bowl eligibility hopes

It is not desperate if it works, but man, is Deion Sanders reaching here to help make his Colorado Buffaloes team bowl-eligible with his latest coaching staff move. Brett McMurphy of The Action Network reported late Friday morning that "Colorado quality control analyst Pat Shurmur will take over play-calling duties for offensive coordinator Sean Lewis vs. Oregon State." This is a shocker!

Not to say that Shurmur cannot do it, because he sure as hell can, but this move speaks volumes about Lewis in his first year at Boulder and why he left a Group of Five head-coaching job at Kent State in the first place. For Shurmur to be effectively promoted from within, someone on the Colorado coaching staff must either be demoted, or probably fired. Lewis will still give the signals for the Buffs.

At 4-4 (1-4) on the season, Colorado is quickly running out of runway to get to a most sacred 6-6 (3-6) mark to achieve bowl eligibility. The Buffaloes' remaining four games are home vs. Oregon State, home vs. Arizona, at Washington State and at Utah. While there is a chance CU could conceivably split the pair to go 2-2 and finish out at 6-6, there is a chance they will finish the season at a bad 4-8.

Shurmur is a former NFL head coach from his days in Cleveland and New York. He also has ample experience as an offensive coordinator at places like Philadelphia, Minnesota and most recently, Denver. Shurmur is not an alpha male, but is an adept play-caller. However, this renders Lewis useless.

For Colorado to get to 5-4 (2-4) on the year, quarterback Shedeur Sanders must play out of his mind.

Deion Sanders to make a change to his offensive staff with his play-caller

I will give Sanders a ton of credit here. It is a bold move for him to make this late into the season. His team may not have the talent of most programs in the Pac-12, but Sanders did assemble quite the coaching staff in year one. Getting Lewis to leave Kent State to become a Power Five coordinator was certainly something. Then again, so was having guys like Shurmur serve as analysts on his first staff.

To me, the primary goal for Colorado the rest of the way is to try to go bowling. This will be absolutely massive for Sanders' program because it will allow him to have and conduct bowl practices for CU, thus having more opportunities for instructional coaching to happen for his players to get better. Conversely, if this blows up in Sanders' face, it will not land well for other coaches across the country.

Lewis left Kent State in hopes that a slight demotion in title at a bigger job could help him achieve what he could not do in the MAC, which was to be a Power Five head coach. Given that Shurmur had been out of the college game for quite a while, it certainly speaks volumes that Sanders trusts him this much this soon. Regardless, this play-calling change makes CU a bit more feisty vs. the Beavers.

If Colorado pulls off the home upset of Oregon State, the Buffaloes' bowl chances improve greatly.