Western Michigan Fires Bill Cubit

Well, losing to 1-9 Eastern Michigan is as good a time as any to announce it, but this was a long time coming in my view. Every year I've done this site (dating back to 2010) I thought Cubit's teams underperformed and it was time for a change. The patient WMU athletic director Kathy Beauregard thought otherwise until today.

But in eight years, his record languished around .500 annually, his teams getting to three bowl games, winning none, and never reaching a MAC Championship Game. They traditionally put up points, beat UConn each of the past two seasons and sent a respectable number of players to the NFL. Form the silver linings into a pile all you want, but the W-L record was simply not good enough, especially this year, as a 4-8 record was a career low in Kalamazoo and the worst since 2004, when Gary Darnell was fired after a 1-10 season.

The injury to senior quarterback Alex Carder didn't help the cause, especially this season, but he wasn't directly responsible for such a shoddy record. Both Carder and his replacement Tyler VanTubbergen were responsible for a combined 20 interceptions and the defense was allowing around 30 points a game.

I'll say this: Cubit's teams were never atrocious, at best they were dangerous, but they always turned out to be camped out atop the bell curve in the MAC. In a league where parity controls eminent domain over the conference, it's puzzling that the Broncos never became a contender.

Now's the time for those top AQ conference assistants/coordinators to get in their resumes; you can win at this program.