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It's not official yet, but it sounds like that "national" search that was to begin immediately upon the dismissal of Chris Beatty likely began before the dismissal. That's because, according to a tweet from Football Scoop on Saturday night, former Western Michigan head coach Bill Cubit is our new offensive coordinator.
Just getting off road. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of coaches tomorrow. Here's 1 and I'm out...hear Bill Cubit will be OC at Illinois
— FootballScoop Staff (@footballscoop) January 6, 2013
Again, Illinois hasn't announced or confirmed anything about it.
As for Cubit, he was recently fired from Western Michigan after going 51-47 (36-27 in the MAC) in eight seasons at the school. Before becoming the head coach at Western Michigan he was an offensive coordinator at Stanford, Rutgers and Missouri.
Of course, most Illini fans are probably familiar with Cubit because Western Michigan was one of the two teams we were able to beat this season -- no wonder he got fired -- and they did not look good in that defeat. However, I assure you, his history is a lot better than that one game.
Cubit runs an offense that's similar to the spread like ours, though with a few minor tweaks. First of all, Cubit likes to pass more than he does run. Since 2007 at Western Michigan his offenses have finished with an average over 400 yards per game. Generally with a two-to-one ratio of passing yards to rushing yards.
Also, during that same time span, none of his offenses averaged less than 26 points per game. In 2011 Western Michigan averaged 35.3 points per game while racking up 458.5 yards per game and running an average of 73 plays per game.
In other words, he likes high tempo and he likes to pass the ball. You may remember Western Michigan receiver Jordan White finished the 2011 season with 140 receptions for 1,911 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Now, it's 1am as I'm writing this post, and I'm a bit tired. However, I'm liking this hire at the moment. I'll take a deeper look on Sunday.