There's a dilemma going on at Champaign-Urbana these days. And once again, it involves coaching.
What will the university do about the head coaching job? Do you pull the plug on Tim Beckman and go searching once again for a job no coach seems too thrilled to have? Do you keep Bekman for another season, hoping to see improvement?
There's yet another issue. Offensive co-ordinator, Bill Cubit.
Cubit was brought in prior to the start of the 2013 season to breathe life into an offense that averaged just over 16 pts a game in 2012. An offense that to be quite honest, looked completely lost. Cubit came in and made the offense legitimate again. This season the offense average just over 29 pts a game. An increase of almost 14 pts a game.
In my mind, Cubit and his offense may have been the only reason won ANY games in 2013. The defense, a unit that made gaining yardage on the ground as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.
Now, how do you keep Cubit?
The easiest way if you're not satisfied with Tim Beckman...fire him and give Cubit the job. If the decision is to keep Beckman, you better be prepared to pony up the dollars to keep Cubit at Illinois. You can bet the farm that other college coaches are going to be knocking at Cubit's door to try and lure him away from Illinois.
There is another possibility. One I hope doesn't happen. Illinois could fire Beckman, hire yet another no-name coach, and still try to keep Cubit on the coaching staff. If they can pull it off, it might not be so bad. Depending on who the new coach is going to be. But it is rare that a new hire will accept a coach staying on from the previous regime.
Illinois AD, Mike Thomas has a mess on his hands. The coach Beckman led illini are not putting people in the seats...never a good thing. Somehow Thomas has to figure a way to get the fans interested again. He also needs to keep stability on the offensive side of the ball by keeping fan favorite, Bill Cubit.
Hey Mike, keep Cubit, give Beckman one more year to turn the defense around, or say adios to Tim and give Cubit the job heading into '15.
Firing Beckman now would be the wrong move, like hitting the reset button. You have to give a new coach a few years to get his system with his recruits in place. If the program remains stagnant for the next season or 2, then let him go and pay what you need to in order to make Cubit the HC. That's the only way to keep some continuity within the program. Though still not a great team, they have taken steps forward since last season. If they can improve a little more next season, you'll start to see some more fans in the seats.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is if Illinois doesn't get 6 wins next year, Beckman is in deep trouble.
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