PHOENIX -- Roy Williams and Ed Reed made safety perhaps the easiest position to fill out on All-America ballots this season. Most of the decision-making in such cases was choosing which of the two standouts deserved Defensive Player of the Year honors.
That's not the way Colorado's talkative free safety Robbie Robinson sees it, though. He's not crazy, blind, devoid of football IQ or someone looking to make waves. He knows they are among the best safeties in the nation.
Just not the best.
That honor, said Robinson during Saturday morning's media sessions at the Airport Marriott in advance of Tuesday's Tostitos Fiesta Bowl pitting Oregon against Colorado, belongs to his partner-in-crime in the middle of the Buffs secondary.
"In my opinion, we have the best safety -- maybe the best defensive back -- in the entire nation in Michael Lewis."
Quite the compliment for his fellow senior. Then again, it's not hard finding praise for Lewis after he led the team in tackles for the second straight year (112), interceptions (5) and forced fumbles (3) from his strong safety position, even if he's someone most fans outside the shadow of the Rocky Mountains hadn't heard about it until he exploded for 11 tackles and an interception in the Buffaloes' 62-36 drubbing of Nebraska and for another 12 tackles in the 39-37 victory over Texas the following week in the Big 12 Championship game.
"He just hasn't gotten the publicity of a Quentin Jammer or a Roy Williams," added Robinson. "Statistically, Mike is right up there with the best of them."
He's right. When pitted against Oklahoma's Williams, whom he shared all-conference honors with at safety this fall, Lewis had 13 more stops than Williams (99), and as many picks, including one for a touchdown. In what could have been dubbed "The Year of the Safety" in college football, Lewis exhibited the type of diverse skills that gave opposing offensive coordinators nightmares.
For starters, he hits as hard as any 6-foot-1, 215-pounder you'll find in college football.
"There are a lot of times we put him in the box when we have nine in the box," said linebacker Drew Wahlroos, "and he definitely hits like a linebacker."
"He's big enough to fill any hole and take on any running back that he sees," said Robinson.
In coverage, he often takes the opposing team's tight end, which will be particularly key against Oregon, considering one of Joey Harrington's favorite targets is All-Pac-10 tight end Justin Peelle, who tied for the team lead with eight touchdowns.
"The tight end is my main key," said Lewis, named a third-team All-American by the Associated Press, The Sporting News and Football News. "I get all my reads off him -- run or pass. Having that read allows me to flow faster to the ball or drop back and steal a pick."
Though pro scouts have doubted his quickness and ability on coverage in early draft analyses, Robinson claims he covers better than anyone in the secondary, including corners. And his defensive coordinator equally doesn't buy some of Lewis' supposed weaknesses for those who look at his 4.6 40 time.
"A step slow? Uh-uh. No," said Vince Okruch, who believes Lewis will have a "long and special" career in the NFL. "When he gets in the NFL and has the daily individual work of covering receivers and backs, he'll be fine. We just don't have the time or the luxury to teach those things."
One thing Gary Barnett, co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Tom McMahon and Okruch didn't have to teach the Richmond, Texas, native was leadership. As is the case with both Williams, and especially Reed, the definitive emotional leader of the Hurricanes, Lewis' impact far exceeds his number of tackles, interceptions or pass breakups.
"Michael Lewis has that quality -- I use the word trust," said Okruch, in his third season of his second stint with the Buffs. "He's so mature and so experienced that as a coaching staff, we trust him. If he comes off and says, 'Coach, they're doing this, they're doing that, this has changed, that has changed,' we know he's right on.
"He always puts us in the right situation."
Wahlroos said he respects him as a player so much that he said it has been a legitimate honor to play on the same field as him, and that Lewis is a hero to him for his coach-like qualities, while Robinson said he personally gets him motivated during games.
"I kind of feed off him," he said. "If Mike is making some great plays, I look over there and think, 'Man, I want to make those kind of plays too.' And when I do make a great play, he's the first guy to come over and shake me on the hand and pat me on the butt."
Ultimately, the 5-11, 200-pound free safety said he admires Lewis mostly for one special quality. One that E.F. Hutton, Shannon Sharpe and Alan Greenspan all share.
"When he speaks," said Robinson, "everyone shuts up and listens."
Oregon has a guy like that, too, in Harrington, one who poses the biggest threat to Colorado's chances of crashing the BCS party and making a case as national champions. Lewis understands the power of leadership, which is why he's far more concerned with Oregon's stoic gunslinger's command and power to motivate in the huddle than his 23 touchdown passes or 2,414 passing yards.
"He's a leader -- that's what scares me a little," said Lewis, who said the best QB he's seen in person to date was Major Applewhite. "Guys are going to play up to his level."
Harrington's ability to lead the Duck offense down the field in a hurry also scares Lewis more than the combo of Onterrio Smith and Maurice Morris in the backfield.
"They have those two 1,000-yard running backs who'll run tough," he said, "but playing in the Big 12, I feel like we have an advantage on that because we play against a lot of great backs."
Playing against one of the best two-way offensive threats in the country, Lewis will need to utilize all his athletic skills. Skills that allowed him to play quarterback and tailback in high school, in addition to safety. His leadership skills will be put to the task as well, in keeping together a somewhat maligned secondary unit that is being called the team's "weakness" of the Buffs in hushed talks among media types.
"I was just talking to the guys and I was saying that as long as we play together and communicate out there, we're not going to have any problems," said Lewis. "And guys will be writing good things about us after the game."
Ranked as the second-best senior safety behind Reed eligible for the draft this coming April, Lewis hopes scouts will be jotting down the same sort of things about him.
Of course, when people extol the virtues of Reed and Williams (should he come out), he always has his running mate in the defensive backfield to do his bragging for him.
"If I were a scout," said Robinson, "he'd be the first guy I'd take."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online. He can be reached at marc.connolly@abc.com.