Wes Lunt was sitting in class when he received a text message. There was a mandatory team meeting in the Illinois football locker room at 1 p.m.

The quarterback stayed in his class for its remaining 30 minutes, but different thoughts raced through his head. He couldn’t figure out what the subject of the meeting would be. He wondered if someone on the team had done something wrong, or maybe the team was going to be punished for something.

When he finally arrived to the locker room, he found teammates talking, wondering what was about to happen. Then Athletic Director Mike Thomas entered the room and informed the players that head coach Tim Beckman had been fired.

The room was quiet and players were confused. Different ranges of emotions filled the players, who play Kent State at Memorial Stadium in a week

“It’s difficult,” Lunt said. “I think getting out there and practicing, that’s really going to set in that it happened and we’ll move on from there.”

The players learned that offensive coordinator Bill Cubit would be the head coach for the season. Players split up into their position groups and listened to their coaches. Finally the entire team came back together and talked. Seniors Mason Monheim, Ted Karras, Josh Ferguson and Chris Boles led the way, but everyone on the team had a voice in the conversation.

The Illini agreed it was time to change the team’s focus. They all agreed that they would face adversity, but they would fight for each other during the transition. Underclassmen spoke of playing for the seniors who spent four or five years working hard for a school that they loved.

The players who spoke with the media after Thomas’ press conference reiterated their support of Cubit. The interim head coach spent time at nine different schools before he was hired as the offensive coordinator at Illinois in 2013. He was the head coach at Western Michigan from 2005 to 2012 and finished with a 51-47 record.

Cubit has been a father figure to many of the players on the team. The interim head coach spoke of the love he feels for the University and his team when he spoke to the media, a statement that leaves the players knowing that they are in safe hands.

“Absolutely,” Karras said when he was asked if he believed in Cubit as a head coach. “He’s been my unit leader for the past three years. He was a great head coach at Western (Michigan) and I think it will work out.”

Illinois held their scheduled practice Friday evening. Players know that there is no time to sulk; they have less than seven days until they start the season.

Thomas remarked how the players have shown their resiliency in the past. The Illini won their last two games of the 2014 regular season to qualify for a bowl game. Many fans and experts left them for dead after a bad performance in the team’s loss to Purdue in the middle of the season.

When Monheim was asked what type of emotions he was feeling, he had a simple answer: He wants to play football.

“It’s unfortunate about the time and what things happened, but we have a game in seven days.” Monheim said. “We started writing this story for this year a long time ago and we’re not going to let anything stop us.”

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