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Illinois's Ryan Cubit promoted to Fighting Illini offensive coordinator

Illinois quarterbacks coach Ryan Cubit is the Fighting Illini’s new offensive coordinator, according to a source.

Illinois quarterbacks coach Ryan Cubit is the Fighting Illini’s new offensive coordinator, according to a source. Cubit’s father, head coach Bill Cubit, will still call plays, per the source.

Ryan Cubit has spent the past two seasons at Illinois, joining the program in 2014 as the director of football student-athlete development before his promotion in April to quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator this season. He has coached under his dad since he got his start in coaching as quarterbacks coach at Western Michigan in ’08. He added co-offensive coordinator duties in ’12.

Western Michigan’s quarterbacks earned All-Mid-American Conference honors for four straight years under Cubit, including Alex Carder, who set the MAC record for touchdown passes in a game in 2011.

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At Illinois this season, Cubit helped quarterback Wes Lunt complete 56.1% of his passes for 2,761 yards with 14 touchdowns. That helped the Illini rank third in the Big Ten in passing offense (243.4 yards per game), ahead of Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State, among others.

Cubit played quarterback at Rutgers and Western Michigan, finishing his career with the Broncos tied for the school record for completion percentage and fifth in passing yards. As a senior, he led Western Michigan to the 2007 International Bowl, the program’s first bowl berth in 18 seasons.

Cubit will coach the Illini offense under head coach Bill Cubit, who led the Fighting Illini to a better than expected 5–7 record this season in an interim capacity after being promoted from offensive coordinator in late August.

Bill Cubit's interim tag was removed last month. He arrived in Champaign in 2013 as offensive coordinator. Before that, he was head coach for eight seasons at Western Michigan, where he had a 51–47 record with three bowl appearances, one more than the school had ever had.