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North Carolina Tar Heels: Illinois with new coach again

By John Woodcock

Sep 19, 2015; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels running back Elijah Hood (34) runs the ball during the first half against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Kenan Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 19, 2015; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels running back Elijah Hood (34) runs the ball during the first half against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Kenan Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports /
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One North Carolina Tar Heels football opponent has fired their head coach just months after hiring him.

The North Carolina Tar Heels scheduled the Illinois Fighting Illini for a home and home series in football two years ago. It was supposed to be a couple of good games between mid-tier BCS programs looking to prove themselves. Then Illinois fired head coach Tim Beckman and named former Western Michigan head coach Bill Cubit to replace him.

The Cubit led Illini came to Chapel Hill and got beat soundly by the Tar Heels. That was a 48-14 ball game. Cubit settled in for a 5-7 record during his stewardship and the program then hired him to the full job at the beginning of the year. It seemed that the Tar Heels would be visiting a different more stable Illinois team in 2016.

Throw that book out the window. Illinois has now sacked Cubit just a couple months after granting him the big chair. The guy doing the sacking was the new Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman. Whitman likely wants to put his imprint on the program and not to live or die by the results of a man who he did not hire.

Yet making such a move on the onset of spring practice brings up a good question. Who replaces Cubit? Whitman is not just doing this on the fly, is he?

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The answer to that question is looking like Lovie Smith, according to reports from Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports. The recently ousted Tampa Bay coach is certainly available, but his resume is of a pro coach without much college experience. On the up side it could be a Pete Carroll move, but on the down side it might be a bad match of man and team. How much does Smith remember from his thirteen years as a college assistant?

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At the very least it means that Mitch Trubisky and the Tar Heel offense will be looking at some version of the Tampa 2 defensive scheme that Smith preferred to run in Chicago and Tampa Bay. They will also face an Illinois team in transition for the second year in a row. There is no telling what exactly they might see, though Smith should be a fan of the running game that gave the Tar Heel defense a little trouble.

Illinois will play the Tar Heels way down the line on September 10th.

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