Damione Lewis played a key role in the improvement the Colorado football team made on defense in 2024.
He is now leaving the Buffaloes to return to his alma mater.
On Tuesday, 247Sports reported that Lewis has accepted a job to coach the defensive tackles at Miami, where he played from 1996-2000.
Lewis has a year remaining on the two-year deal he signed with CU a year ago. He was set to make $350,000 this next season and will owe 25% of that ($87,500) to CU to terminate the contract early.
Originally hired by Buffs head coach Deion Sanders as a defensive analyst after the 2023 season, Lewis was promoted to the defensive line coach position in July.
As CU’s defensive line coach in 2024, Lewis helped that group improve dramatically from 2023. Lewis teamed with edge coach Vincent Dancy and graduate assistant Warren Sapp to form a coaching trio that worked with the front seven, making that group one of the best in the Big 12. The Buffs led the Big 12 in sacks and tackles for loss.
Sapp is the only one left of that trio, however. Dancy left CU last month for a job at Mississippi State.
Lewis was an all-Big East player at Miami and a first-round draft choice (No. 12 overall) in 2001 by the St. Louis Rams. He played a decade in the NFL for the Rams, Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots and Houston Texans.
From 2020-23, Lewis worked with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, helping to coach the defensive line. In 2019, he worked at Florida International as an assistant athletic director for player development and community relations.
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