Bill Cubit

William John Cubit (born October 14, 1953) is an American football coach and former player.

Cubit won a basketball game in 1968 after making two free throws with one second left in the game 62–61.

He was named all-Delco honorable mention in 1969 and 1970.

He was named first team All-Delco his senior year.

Cubit finished his career with 1,114 points.

In his baseball career, he was a pitcher and center fielder.

He threw a no-hitter his junior year.

He had a 7–0 win–loss record, a 0.32 earned run average and a .476 batting average in his senior season, helping Sharon Hill to a Section Three championship.

Cubit accepted a scholarship from the University of Delaware over offers from Temple and Drexel.

He graduated from Delaware in 1973 with a B.S. in business, and later earned his M.A. in education in 1979 from Saint Joseph's University.

Cubit got his coaching start in 1973, serving two years as the offensive backfield coach at Swarthmore College.

As a high school coach, Cubit compiled a nine-year record of 79–15–2 at three different programs, Martin County, Academy Park and his alma mater Sharon Hill.

While at Delaware, Cubit played wide receiver and quarterback for the Blue Hens football team under head coach Tubby Raymond, earning Associated Press All-America honorable mention in 1974.

He set school records for catches in a game (10) and a season (47), along with receiving yards in a season (787).

Cubit's playing career ended with the 1974 NCAA Division II Football Championship game as the Blue Hens fell to the Central Michigan Chippewas by a score of 54–14.

This was the first bowl game for Western Michigan since 1988, when the team played in the California Raisin Bowl.

The Broncos fell to Cincinnati, 27–24.

Cincinnati was led to victory by new head coach Brian Kelly, who had also beaten the Broncos earlier in the season while he was head coach at Central Michigan.

The two had also worked together on the staff of Galen Hall at the University of Florida in 1989.

Cubit has spent time as the offensive coordinator at Stanford University, and the University of Missouri.

Cubit served as the head football coach at Widener University from 1992 to 1996, and Western Michigan University from 2005 to 2012.

Cubit was head coach at NCAA Division III Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania from 1992 to 1996.

He led the Pioneers to a 34–18–1 record.

Cubit was previously the offensive coordinator for the Broncos under head coach Gary Darnell from 1997 to 1999.

In 2001, he was the first offensive coordinator hired by new head coach Greg Schiano at Rutgers University.

Cubit was named head football coach at Western Michigan on December 4, 2004, succeeding Gary Darnell.

Cubit was among a group of finalists for the job that included Notre Dame defensive line coach Greg Mattison (a former WMU assistant); Edinboro head coach Lou Tepper (a former head coach at Illinois); and Cornell head coach Jim Knowles (a former WMU assistant).

In his first season, Cubit turned around a program that was 1–10 the prior season and had had three losing seasons in a row to a 7–4 record, the biggest single-season turnaround in Mid-American Conference (MAC) history and the second largest of the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season.

For his efforts, Cubit was named the 2005 MAC Coach of the Year.

Cubit led Western Michigan to the International Bowl following the 2006 season.

After a nine-win season in 2008, Cubit lead Western Michigan to the Texas Bowl against Rice, where the Broncos lost, 38–14.

Cubit was the head football coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, first on an interim basis in the 2015 season and then promoted to the post full-time before his dismissal on March 5, 2016.

Most recently, in 2019, he served as assistant head coach and running backs coach at his alma mater, the University of Delaware.

Cubit attended Sharon Hill High School in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania.

A three-sport "sensation", he played football, basketball and baseball in high school.

Described as a scrambling quarterback, Cubit was a three-year starter at quarterback and finished his career with 96 pass completions for 1,746 yards and 20 touchdowns.

He had five rushing touchdowns and 2,010 yards of total offense.

Cubit also intercepted 17 passes in his career on defense, including six in one game (four in one quarter).

He was named All-Delco defensive back is his senior season.

Cubit was also named to the Blue Cross All-Scholastic football team his senior year and was named Delaware County Player of the Year.